Lore of Familiars
by TheMatador
Summary: After the Chamber Harry feels the need to escape the confines of the castle. While there he finds something that will change the course of the future. H/G
1. The Bond

Disclaimer - It isn't mine. It all belongs to a millionairess and a rather famous one at that.

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It was two days after Harry had killed the Basilisk and he needed to get out of the castle. Sure he wasn't being stared at for being the heir of Slytherin anymore but the speculation about what happened down in the Chamber was driving him crazy. That was why he was out wandering the grounds this early. It had started before Christmas, when the rumours were particularly bad, he would put on the invisibility cloak and walk through the castle grounds. The walk round the lake was nice, if a little long but the outskirts of the forbidden forest were good too. He figured it was all the years in his cupboard which made him long for the outdoors.

The cry of anguish from deeper in the forest startled him and before he could stop himself he was running towards the source of the noise. Within minutes he came upon the chilling sight of the five of the acromantula herd surrounding what looked to be a limping four legged creature. Despite his nerves Harry knew he had to do something.

"Incendio" he cried pointing a shaking wand at an unsuspecting spider.

The clicking and shrieking of acromantulas intensified as they whirled around to face this new threat. The smell of charred flesh reached Harry's nostrils making him gag and causing the flames from his wand to sputter and die. The burnt spider crept away warily its attention now fully focussed on Harry as the four other spiders tried to surround Harry.

Harry stumbled his way towards the limping creature, a griffin, it was larger than he had thought, its white birdlike head reaching chest height, with the deep chestnut feathers of its body giving way to powerful looking talons. Both of the creatures chestnut coloured wings looked to be broken and its back left leg which appeared to be that of a snow leopard, appeared slashed an bloody and the creature was clearly favouring it.

Having little choice but to turn his back on the creature and face the oncoming acromantula that were now attempting to surround the pair. Harry was desperately trying to think of something that would help. Trusting that the two spiders behind him were being stalled by the young griffin, Harry focused on the sea of legs approaching him. Legs, Jelly-legs. Quickly firing off a Jelly-legs curse he was delighted to see one of his attacks lose control and smash into a tree, he tried the same tactic on the other two attackers and was again delighted with the result. The screeching behind him followed by the angry clicks of apparently desperate spiders told him his comrade was successful too. Eyeing his attackers warily as they struggled to stand he was surprised by the great shadow the passed over him and turned round to be confronted by startling yellow eyes and a vicious looking beak staring at him from above.

The excited if seemingly pained squawking from the young griffin beside him told him that this must be some relation to his recent comrade as Harry tried to maintain eye contact with the powerful creature. He apparently passed the inspection as the older griffin turned to inspect the younger, injured party and with series of screeches appeared to berate the younger griffin whose head began to droop. Feeling suddenly protective of the animal Harry started towards him laying a protective hand on the back if his neck and stroking the surprisingly soft feathers before glaring defiantly and the older griffin. After a long moment the older creature let out another loud squawk which Harry interpreted as amusement before bowing his head to the younger griffin.

At this the younger griffin bounced and screeched excitedly before turning to Harry and looking deep into his eyes. As Harry stared back into the fierce, intelligent amber eyes he became aware of another presence in his mind and he was bombarded with thoughts of excitement and nervousness that were not his own. Without thinking Harry reached out his left arm, palm upwards to the creature, who slowly paced towards him, and using his beak gently pierced Harrys wrist. Before Harry could cry out, the griffin facing him quickly manoeuvred the pierced wrist to a wound on his own front leg.

The moment the wounds touched Harry dropped to his knees in agony, a scream ripped out of his throat and was answered by an agonised shriek from the creature opposite. The pain seemed to go on forever and Harry felt as if a thousand knives were scraping across his very bones. As suddenly as it had started, the pain vanished and was replaced by a feeling of well being and contentment Harry could never remember.

"So how was the bonding?"

The noise from Harry's right startled him as not only had he forgotten that they were not alone, but it could only have come from the griffin.

"Wonderful father. Even my wings have been fixed."

"You were lucky youngling, were it not for the human you would not be alive for me to berate you." The older griffin replied sternly.

Turning to Harry who was still too shocked to respond he spoke again. "So human what compelled you to save my daughter?" eyeing Harry warily.

"I-I was out walking, heard her cries and new she was in pain, by the time I got here she was surrounded, I've been surrounded by acromantula before and nearly eaten, I know how scary it is, I wouldn't wish it on anyone." Harry replied, more confidently than he felt.

Accepting the answer the older griffin moved on to another topic. "So young warrior, why are you worthy of a familiar bond with a griffin?"

"A-a what?" Harry stammered.

"A familiar bond. Surely you know what that is. How do you think you can now talk to us? My daughter insists you are worthy of a full bond. I am yet to be convinced."

"Please sir, I don't know what a familiar bond is, all I know is I saw she was in trouble and tried to help. I'm just glad I could save her." He answered, looking fondly at the fully healed young griffin beside him.

"What on earth do they teach at that school of yours if they don't teach familiar bonds?"

Harry shrugged unsure of what to answer and vaguely insulted by the remarks about the only place he had ever called home

"A familiar bond is a bond between two creatures of different species, it is more than friendship, it is the ultimate contract, it is an agreement between magical creatures with similar ideals that they will always look after each other. Are you aware of the phoenix at the school?"

"Fawkes, yes, he helped me kill the basilisk that was attacking the students."

At this there were two strangled screeches coming from the griffins, the griffin equivalent of a startle gasp.

"You, young human, you killed the basilisk which slept under the school?"

"Yes." Replied Harry bashfully. "My best friends sister had been possessed by the memory of Lord Voldemort who was using it to attack the students, and was trying to use her to come back to life."

There was a moments silence as the two griffins looked at Harry, the younger apparently in awe, the older seemingly re-evaluating him.

"Perhaps I was wrong about you young warrior. You are more worthy than I thought." The older griffin was silent for a moment before continuing. "Fawkes is the familiar of your Headmaster. Phoenixes are among the most common of the powerful familiar's. They bond with powerful, light wizards, wizards are similar to them in nature. At any one time there are at least five bonded phoenixes in the world.

"Griffins are different, while we are light creatures, we understand that there is a time and a place for darkness, for fighting. Griffin's bond only to warriors. Powerful warriors. We have powerful protective instincts and as a species we can be aggressive and ruthless when required. Not many mages have ever had both the power and personality required to attract a griffin familiar."

At the start of the explanation Harry was excited, but as it continued he became increasingly despondent. "B-But I'm not that powerful" Harry stuttered, still unable to get over the shock of last fifteen minutes.

This was met with a derisive snort from both griffin's. "While modesty is an attractive quality in this case it is unbecoming. Your magic completely healed a griffin with two broken wings, a broken back leg and multiple lacerations. We are extremely resistant to outside magic, even through a familiar bond. You are powerful."

The excitement which had died in Harry was reignited. "My magic did that?" he asked looking again at the fully healed griffin."

"Yes much as my magic healed all your injuries." The female griffin answered shyly

"My injuries?" Harry queried "The acromantula didn't get me."

"No but you had old injuries, and your taller now." Came her reply.

"Taller? How did I get taller?"

"Something in your past clearly made you not as well physically as you should have been. The magic of the initial bonding process seems to have corrected it."

Harry scowled. He had thought he was short because his parents were but given the height he was now he should have always been four inches taller. The Dursleys had a lot to answer for.

"But would you really want to fully bond with me?"He asked looking at the female griffin "How is a full bond different from this?"

"You are a protector. I can feel it." She looked at her father "we can feel it, you are a warrior a fighter, you protect those less powerful than yourself from harm. That is the way of the griffin, to fight, viciously when needs be. A full bond would allow us to call each other whenever one of us needed help and our respective magic to combine more effectively. It would be an honour to fully bond with you."

Harry was astonished. "O-Of course I would love to fully bond with you. The honour would be mine."

The older griffin looked on approvingly. "In that case young human your wrists need to be pierced again. Both this time. While the same must be done for Kalicene."

Harry held out both wrists for his future familiar and she pierced both before making incisions just above her talons on her own front feet. Slowly both Harry and Kalicene moved forward and Harry gently reached out to the griffin to cover both incisions with his wrists.

The pain he expected was not forthcoming, instead a powerful feeling of warmth and comfort swept through him. Harry basked in his own feelings of contentment until slowly the feeling receded leaving him with a slight sense of loss. Realising he had closed his eyes he slowly opened them and gazed into the face of his new familiar.

"Kalicene. It is an honour I don't deserve." He turned to the older griffin "If there is anything you ever require you have but to ask. I cannot repay you for the honour you and your daughter have shown me."

"Ney youngling. It is I who should thank you, you saved my daughter's life and then fixed her injuries, You are now griffin kin and all of our kind ill know of it."

"Sir please I'm just Harry." He pleaded, rather embarrassed by the praise lavished upon him.

At that the older griffin looked suspicious and eyed Harry more closely. Eyes resting on his lightning bolt scar. "No, you will never be just Harry, even our kind have heard of you, Harry Potter. It seems you are destined to be the great protector of this age, for that is what it means to bond to a griffin."

Feeling both embarrassed and emboldened by his words Harry looked deeply into the elder Griffins eyes. "I hope I prove worthy."

"As we all do Harry"


	2. Important Conversations

Disclaimer - Not mine, hers blah blah blah

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"Now if you are Griffin-kin you must tell me about yourself as myself and Kalicene will tell you about Griffin society."

So Harry began telling them about his life story trying to leave out as much as possible of the Dursleys until Kalicene told him angrily.

"If you don't have the courage to accept your past as part of yourself, you do not have the courage to do what must be done to protect others."

Acknowledging the truth of her words he began again, explaining what he had found out about his parents and that Halloween night, followed by his time at the Dursleys, including the beatings, the starvation, the hiding of his talents to avoid the inevitable torture if he was found to be better than his cousin. He had never spoken of it before and never wanted to again but in talking of his past, particularly in light of his new found physical presence was extremely cathartic and he found many of his demons began to recede. After the Dursleys he spoke of his first year at Hogwarts, of his friendships with Ron and Hermione, the fight with the troll, his confrontation with Quirrell/Voldemort. He noticed Kalicene glowing with pride, as he spoke and was pleased with the approval in the eyes of her father, Kalcon. As he moved onto his second year and again his time with Dursley's, Dobby, the Heir of Slytherin rumours and his investigation, before finally the confrontation with the Basilisk and the memory of Voldemort all the way up to that morning. As the story wound down Harry looked at Kalicene to find her looking intrigued and thoughtful, while Kalcon looked at him with both pride and something that seemed like disappointment.

"Well Harry, your story validates Kalicene's bonding. You are indeed worthy of becoming Griffin-kin. But I still find myself disappointed." Harry looked both confused and ashamed.

"Why sir?" he dejectedly.

"For a number of reasons, but nothing that cannot be worked on. Firstly while your upbringing required you to hide your intelligence you still do so now, most likely because you are afraid of your friends rejection. Correct?"

Harry nodded, his eyes downcast.

"Secondly, as a part of this you have taken the easy way in your learning. Even I can tell you are no seer, so how is that class going to help you defend yourself and others?"

Still staring at his feet Harry quietly answered "It won't."

"Finally, you are a protector of others, you saved a young girl from a horrendous experience two days ago. How is she doing now?"

"Ron said she was okay, just very quiet."

"I did not ask how your friend thought his sister was doing, I asked how she was doing. You shared in her experience, protected her, she will feel ashamed, weak, extremely vulnerable and will be distant from everyone because she will fear being rejected by them. You know this. I know this. Only you can help her through this and yet you have not seen her." Kalcon looked at him sternly, gently lifting Harry's chin with his talon so that Harry was looking him in the eye. "Do you know what to do about this young Harry?"

"I need to try harder in school, drop Divination for something else, probably both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, and go and check up on Ginny." Harry replied his tone dejected but determined.

"That is a good start. Now, what to do about this summer?"

"Well I guess I'll be back to the Dursley's."

Kalicene scowled. "We'll see about that." She said angrily.

"Indeed. You are a griffin now. You have a family. We will not let you get hurt." Suddenly Harry was overcome with emotion. He had a family, someone to look out for him, a single tear fell from his eye as he looked on the two griffins. Kalcon, understanding his feelings moved to Harrys left handside and gently placed a wing around him. Kalicene moved to his right and he placed his arm around her, her gentle warmth and strong heartbeat reassuring him that this was real.

Harry was unsure how long he stayed there but he knew it was one of the happiest moments of his life. Eventually Kalcon moved, the loss of his wing disturbed Harry from his peaceful contemplation and brought him back to reality.

"Young Harry, we will meet tomorrow, and again numerous times before you leave to plan your summer however it is long past time we were back with the clan, and you have a new future to begin."

Reluctantly getting to his feet Harry nodded, "Thank you, I kn-know I said it before but I can never repay for what you have done for me this morning." Looking directly Kalicene he continued "Kali, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for my life. Just the physical healing was incredible. W-Would you like to come and meet one of my friends, he loves all sorts of creatures, the more dangerous the better." He said chuckling slightly.

"Ahh yes, the gamekeeper, he is worthy." Replied Kalcon. "you may go if you wish." he nodded to Kalicene. "I will wait for you to return before we depart." He turned to Harry. "The gamekeeper is worthy, but be careful who you tell about this as of yet. You are not yet strong enough to be the protector of the innocent you will be."

Kalicene bounced around excitedly, while Harry looked slightly startled. They made their way back to the edge of the forest to the point where Harry remembered dropping his invisibility cloak. Looking at his watch Harry realised it was lunchtime, and hunger hit him, hoping that Hagrid hadn't chosen to eat at the school they made their way to the groundskeepers cottage and knocked on his door, while Harry told Kali to wait around the corner.

Immediately there was loud barking from inside.

"Down Fang, yer daft dog" followed by the unlocking of the door "'Arry, what yer doin''ere? Thought yer'd be a' lunch?"

"Hagrid there's someone I'd like you to meet. I was walking around the edge of the forest this morning when I heard screeching inside. It sounded like something was in pain. Anyway I found acromantula surrounding her, forced them away from her, anyway I'd like you to meet Kali."

And with that he turned Hagrid round to meet the newly emerged griffin.

"Well ain't yer beautiful!" Hagrid cried. "But 'Arry yer shouldn't run interr forest like that. It's dangerous. An' 'ow didja get a griffin ter follow yer out 'ere?"

Harry looked at Kali to get her approval, he grinned as she nodded. "We bonded, she's my familiar."

It took a few moments for Hagrid to respond. "Blimey 'Arry, it all happens to you doesn't it?" he looked on in wonder.

"Anyway Hagrid she's got to get back to her clan but she'll be around quite a bit to meet up with me before we leave for summer."

"Alrigh' 'Arry. Let me know if either of yer need anythin'. Blimey. A griffin familiar. Never thought I'd see the day."

Harry left Hagrid still shaking his head in wonder and lead Kali back to the forest and her father. "Bye Kali, I can't wait to see you tomorrow."

"Neither can I Harry" came the excited reply and with that she and her father disappeared between the trees.

Making his way back to the front entrance Harry wondered just how to approach Professor McGonagall about his classes. Kalcon and Kali were right, it was lazy, he was taking the easy option, it wouldn't help him with Voldemort. He had just found what Voldemort was like at sixteen and as disgusting as the diary was, magically, it was impressive. If Harry was going to compete, he had to get better. With his new found resolve, he made his way through the castle to the great hall, spotting Professor McGonagall he made his way to the teacher's table.

"Professor, I was wondering if it would be possible to change my electives for next year?"

"It's possible certainly though I'm afraid I'll need a valid reason as to why. Come to my office after lunch and we can discuss it."

"Thanks Professor."

Making his way back to the Gryffindor table he spotted Ron and Hermione.

"Just where have you been? We've been worried sick." Hermione demanded the moment he sat down.

"I got up early and just needed to get away from the castle. Too many people asking about the chamber so I was walking round the grounds under the cloak thinking about stuff and lost track of time."

Hermione looked slightly mollified but still concerned.

"What were you thinking about for so long mate?" asked Ron while stuffing his face with cold chicken.

Looking around he saw no one was paying any attention to them. "Voldemort." They both flinched. "Look stuffs happened the last two years here and I've got a funny feeling it's going to keep happening, so I was thinking about the electives and I reckon I need to forget Diviniation and take Runes and Arithmancy."

"But mate we were going to do all our classes together." Ron moaned

"Well you could probably change too but I think Runes and Arithmancy will help me more than Divination."

Hermione looked extremely pleased though she was clearly concerned. "Not that I don't agree Harry but don't you think its a bit extreme to build your life around you-know-who?"

"Not really, look he's been after me twice I don't think it's a stretch to think he'll do it again, besides both subjects could be fun, I might get to be a cursebreaker." He felt guilty about not telling the real reason for his change of heart but it just didn't feel like the right time at the moment.

"Nah mate, just sounds like too much work for me." Said Ron in between mouthfuls. At which Hermione looked annoyed.

The meal passed in relative peace after that and harry made his way to McGonagall's office.

"Mr Potter, please sit down."

"Thank you ma'am"

"Now why do you wish to change electives?"

"There is a few reasons really Professor." He replied, unsure of just how much to say. "I don't think I've been trying as hard as I could in school so far." He looked up after his admission to see the mouth of his head of house as thin as he'd ever seen it.

"And why, pray tell, is that?" she responded, clearly displeased.

Harry winced, "because whenever I did better than my cousin in school I used to get hit, I kind of trained myself not to try so hard." Came his ashamed reply. He looked up to see a look of deepest sympathy from his professor.

"Why those miserable, appalling people!" she yelled in indignant outrage, making Harry smile in spite of himself. Composing herself for a moment she continued. "I'm so sorry Harry, I knew what type of people they were, I should have made Albus take you somewhere else." The emotion evident in her voice.

"It's okay professor" she looked at him "well okay it's not really but it's better since I've been here, they weren't too bad last summer, and they haven't hit me since I got my letter."

Her heart went out to the small boy in front of her who looked so much like his father but had all the compassion and caring of his mother. "That's not good enough Harry I refuse to send you back there." Harry smiled. It lit up his face. As he smiled she looked at him more closely, she wasn't certain because of the clothes but he seemed different than yesterday. "Err Mr. Potter, this may be an odd question but have you grown since yesterday?"

Harry panicked briefly before deciding he really should come clean with the Professor. "Yes." He replied shyly.

"How did you manage that?" she asked not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Err I bonded a familiar, and her magic managed to fix the problems the Dursleys caused."

McGonagall was stunned, of all the ways she had expected this conversation to go this was not one of them. "W-What animal?"

Harry took a deep breath, already wincing. "A griffin."

McGonagall sat with her mouth open looking at the boy in front of her.

"Her name is Kalicene, or Kali, I was walking this morning just round the each of the forest and heard a cry. I ran into the forest and found her being attacked by acromantula. We fought them off, then we bonded, my magic fixed her broken wings and leg, she fixed me so I'm the height I should be."

"I didn't know we had griffins in the forest." Said McGonagall, too dumbstruck to ask more about his story.

"They actually live in the mountains further away. Kali's only young taking her first longish flight but she went too far and got tired that's when the spiders found her."

"Does she have anything to do with your decision regarding electives?"

"Yes professor. Apparently Griffins only bond rarely as the mindset of a griffin is different to most humans." McGonagall nodded in understanding. "But the people they bond to are warriors, protectors of the innocent. When I told her my story her and her father were proud of my adventures but displeased with my choice of Divination since I'm clearly not a seer, and if I need to defend people Ancient Runes and Arithmancy are much better choices. That combined with the need to work harder to prove myself worthy of Kali is the reason I want to change electives." Harry finished

"Very well Mr. Potter, I understand your reasoning and will make the changes to your timetable." She looked questioningly at Harry, suddenly appearing nervous. "Would it be possible for me to meet Kali ?"

Harry grinned. "Of course Professor, I'm meeting her at the edge of the forest tomorrow after breakfast, you're welcome to join me. I think Hagrid is as well I introduced him to her just before lunch."

"What about Mr Weasley and Miss Granger?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea yet Professor" he replied knowing he was right yet not happy with himself because of it. "Ron wouldn't really understand it and Hermione would over analyse it. At the moment I would quite like to keep it as private as possible, at least until next year."

"That is of course your choice Mr Potter."

"Professor I'm not sure I should say this but the Griffin's are trying to come up with a plan to help me this summer. If you have any ideas between now and tomorrow I'm sure we would be able to discuss it then." He said nervously, unsure of whether she would really try and help him.

"Of course Mr Potter, I will try my best. Was there anything else?"

"Oh, yes. I was wondering if you knew if Ginny was accepting visitors. I thought I might see how she was."

The corners of McGonagall's mouth twitched. "As far as I'm aware she is."

"Thanks Professor." He said as he left her office on the way to the hospital wing.

A few minutes later he made it.

"Mr Potter this is rather unusual, you coming through those doors on your own feet."

"Hi Madam Pomfrey, I was wondering if I could see Ginny?"

A startled 'Eeep' could be heard from the corner of the room.

"Yes but no tiring her out, she's been through quite an ordeal."

"I know ma'am thanks."

He made his way over to the corner of the room still unsure of what to say.

"Hi Ginny"

"Hi" came the barely audible response

"How are you feeling?"

"Okay." She whispered.

He looked at her critically. "No you're not." She looked up at him her face bright read, her eyes puffy. "You're scared that people hate you, you think your weak and you feel violated."

She started trembling. The tears started to fall again. "He was so horrible, the things he said and showed me, the things he made me do. How can you look at me? I'm disgusting, I've done horrible things."

"No Ginny. Tom did horrible things and he forced you to watch them. You were writing in that diary all year weren't you." She nodded too scared to look up. "So you fought Voldemort for a year." She flinched and gasped at the name. "No one else has managed that Ginny, you fought him longer than anyone has, and if he proved stronger in the end it's not surprising. You're eleven! Whatever you do don't blame yourself. Blame Voldemort" she flinched again "or Tom Riddle of whatever you want to call him but it's not your fault."

They sat in silence for a few minutes "Why Harry? Why did you come for me?" she asked in a timid voice.

"Because I was worried about you, we couldn't let anything happen to you." She nodded again still not looking him in the eye. "Ginny are you allowed out of the hospital wing yet?"

"T-Tommorrow after breakfast I think."

"Good, I'd like to introduce you to someone. You see something happened to me today. I bonded a familiar." She looked up finally meeting his eye, "and I'd like to introduce the two of you, I think you'd like her."

"W-What is she?"

"A griffin."

After a moments silence in which her face went even redder she replied. "It suits you."

"Ginny I need to go but I want you to think about something. If you push people away after this Tom wins. What you need to do is get better and stronger so no one can ever makes you feel like this again and if anyone ever tries, I'll be there to help sort them out."

Ginny smiled. It was the first time he'd really seen her smile. "So are you going to come see Kali with me tomorrow?"

"Y-Yes if its okay."

"Excellent, do you mind keeping it secret, I've not told Ron or Hermione yet I don't think they'd take it too well."

"O-Okay."

"Great. Well I'll see you tomorrow Ginny. Bye"

And with that he left the hospital wing, leaving Ginny's world just a little bit brighter.


	3. Plans

Disclaimer - Not mine. I'm playing in JKR's world and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to do so

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Harry made his way through the portrait into the Gryffindor common room, and over to Ron and Hermione.

"Harry, are you taller than yesterday? Hermione asked suspiciously.

He panicked again. "Err yeah, I had a bit of an accident this morning when I was outside, got cuts all over me, and they all got dirty." He responded making it up as he went along. "Err Madam Pomfrey gave me a blood replenishing potion, some sort of purification potion and a general cure-all. Next thing I know feels like my bones are stretching and I've grown four inches. From what she says I should always have been this height but because of the Dursley's treatment I was never able to grow properly."

Hermione still looked suspicious but it was tempered with sympathy.

"Blimey mate, well you look good. What did McGonagall say?" asked Ron

"Oh, it's fine, I'm doing Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy next year."

"Well, it's good to know you're going to be taking your studies seriously." Was the inevitable response from Hermione. It was greeted with the rolling of eyes from the two boys.

The rest of the day passed with easy banter flowing between the three friends and Harry spending a bit of time reading through his text books, earning a half-hearted glare from Ron and an ecstatic smile from Hermione.

The next morning, after breakfast, Harry made his excuses to Ron and Hermione and made his way to the teachers table and Professor McGonagall.

"Professor could we have that talk now." Harry asked hoping she'd follow his lead.

"Of course Harry." She replied with a knowing smile. "If you'll allow me to get my jacket I thought it might be nice to wander the grounds while we talk."

"Certainly Professor. Err Professor, could Ginny join us? She's being released this morning and I think a walk through the grounds might help her." He said trying to convey his meaning through his words.

McGonagall's lips _almost_ broke into a grin. That would be fine Mr Potter, I'll meet the pair of you in the entrance hall.

Harry almost ran to the hospital in his excitement to see Kali again. Bursting through the doors he looked around for Ginny and saw her, looking pale but determined by her bed.

"Hi Ginny, what did Pomfrey say can you come for a walk?"

"Yes, I was just waiting for you to get here." She replied not looking him in the eye.

"Great, Professor McGonagall said she'd meet us in the Entrance Hall."

He led her towards the doors but just as they were about to exit a small, trembling hand latched onto his elbow. "Harry, what if they stare? How can I face everyone? They all know what I did." She asked, her voice shaking.

"Okay first of all they don't know what you did. No one has said anything. All anyone knows is that you were in the Chamber. Secondly, so what if they stare? They haven't fought and held Tom off for a year. You need to understand how difficult that is Ginny. I'm sure loads of them wouldn't be strong enough. Come on it won't take long to walk through the castle then you'll be away from them and you can meet Kali."

He watched as she steeled herself, her hand still on his arm, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

Somewhat anticlimactically they saw no one on the way to the entrance hall where the professor was waiting.

"Mr Potter, Miss Weasley are you ready?" at the nod she started walking towards the forest. "Mr Potter, I spoke to Hagrid this morning and he won't be able to join us. Apparently there is a problem with the thestrals that needed to be fixed."

Harry nodded unsure of what else was expected of him. "Okay Professor. In that case, we'll go straight to them." And he took the lead of the party heading directly to the point where he dropped his invisibility cloak the previous day.

After a few minutes, they made it to the edge of the forest where they were suddenly overcome by excited screeching.

"Sweet Merlin!" was all that could be heard from McGonagall as she caught sight of the giant form of Kalcon. Ginny's focus meanwhile was entirely given to the griffin leaping at Harry.

"Hey there Kali. Did you miss me? I missed you." He said while stroking her head affectionately.

"Of course I did silly human" came her excited reply, though to Ginny and McGonagall it sounded like chirruping.

Turning back to his companions he introduced the party. "Professor McGonagall, Ginny this is my familiar Kali and her father Kalcon. Kalcon, Kali this is Professor McGonagall my Head of House and Ginny Weasley, the err...sister of my best friend."

Kalcon bowed his head slightly to each, while Kali, immediately moved away from Harry and wrapped herself around Ginny's legs, purring. Harry chuckled while Ginny took a moment to collect herself before tentatively reaching out and stroking the back of Kali's head. The purring only increased as did Harry's laughing.

"Come Harry, let us return to the clearing and sit." Said Kalcon as he turned and lead them through the forest. Kali bounced after him, and Harry marched off and it was a couple of seconds before Ginny and the Professor realised they had been left and scrambled to catch up.

Two minutes later, they were all sat around the clearing, McGonagall having transfigured some chairs for herself and the students, while Kali lay down at Harry's feet. It was then that Kalcon told of his initial thoughts while Harry translated for the other pair.

"First of all Harry the priority must be to get you protected in your relatives house. While Kali is more than willing to go and live there with you I believe that would cause more harm than good at this moment in time and she is not yet strong enough to protect you fully." McGonagall winced during the explanation as she knew a large portion of the blame for Harry's predicament lay at her feet. Ginny meanwhile was stunned as she learned of the living conditions of the wizarding worlds saviour. "In the short term I believe the best idea may well be to employ the house elf you rescued, Dobby. He should be able to both protect and feed you over the summer, ensuring that interaction with your relatives is kept to a minimum."

Harry turned to McGonagall "but last summer Dobby did magic in the house and I got blamed for it, won't the same thing happen if I employ him?"

McGonagall, who had now heard the whole story of Harry's year replied. "No I don't believe so, House Elf magic registers differently on the ministry sensors, the only reasons it was picked up is because Dobby wanted it picked up."

Despite the year that had passed since the incident and his much warmer feelings towards Dobby at the present time, inside Harry was seething. "That sneaky little bug-" he responded though a stern look from McGonagall cut him off.

"Ultimately" Kalcon continued "the aim has to be for Harry to move elsewhere, ideally somewhere where he can practice magic over the summer."

At that McGonagall looked thoughtful "Mr Potter how much do you know of the history of your father's family?"

"Very little ma'am, no one has really told me anything about them."

Suddenly looking much older than she had previously McGonagall looked at him in sympathy and took her glasses off, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Have you heard it said that your father was good at transfiguration?"

"Yes ma'am"

"The truth is all Potter's are good at transfiguration, even you, when you try hard enough" she smiled at him. "The family name, Potter, originally comes from the clay pots and plates they were known for making. When magic was introduced they became true artists with a wand in terms of their stone and metalwork, gifted as they were in the shaping and production of solid matter." Harry moved closer, fascinated at this new insight into his family.

"Due to your father's, somewhat deviant behaviour while at school I became rather well acquainted with your grandparents, Charles and Eleanor. They were wonderful people and they confirmed the family affinities. It seems that the finesse observed in Potter Transfiguration is largely due to Earth elemental powers prevalent in the Potter bloodline."

"Earth elemental powers? What does that mean though?" asked Harry breathlessly.

"It means that given time and training, you Harry will have command over stone and metal, being able to bend and shape it to your will. Of course the extent to which you will be able to do this is a factor of both magical power and training.

"The reason I bring this up now, is that about two or three hundred years ago the Potter's as a family became significantly more powerful magically. It is believed that this actually began happening much further back in time but only became more noticeable as other families became generally weaker. This is a side effect of the pureblood agenda, over the years the pureblood interbreeding philosophy has lead to a limited gene pool meaning that the magically each generation is less and less stable. The Potters on the other hand, partly because they have always been a middle-class family, have very rarely gone along with the pureblood propaganda and occasionally married muggles or muggleborns making for a much more stable personality hence less erratic magic.

"Anyway, for whatever reason the Potters start to become more powerful, so about two hundred and fifty years ago the head of the family decided to use this increased power to create a new family home, formed straight out of living rock. It's based down in Cumbria as far as I'm aware. After your grandparents died in the last war, your father didn't have the heart to move into the family home. As far as I am aware, it's still empty."

"So I have a family home? How come no one ever told me?" Harry demanded, starting to get angry about being kept in the dark. Kali too was agitated on behalf of her human.

"Truthfully, I largely forgot, and Dumbledore and the other Professor's were not as close as I was to the Potter's. However I believe at some point over the summer, I may be able to convince Albus to allow me to escort you to your family vault. Officially of course to look at family heirlooms and find out more about your history. In reality, there should be something in your vault regarding the location of 'The Kiln' your family home.

Harry and the group sat in stunned silence. Kalcon appeared quite thoughtful, Kali excited while Ginny felt a bit like an intruder.

After the silence dragged on for a few minutes Harry asked for him the most important question. "So you think I might have a family home free and available for me to live in?"

"I believe so Harry, though of course it has been abandoned for at least fifteen years, so there is no knowing what state it may be in."

"Well" said Kalcon, breaking the silence "it appears we have a plan. You Harry will try to contact the elf Dobby as soon as possible and ask him to work for you, protecting you over the summer, you will also do your best to come here and spend time with your Griffin family before you have to leave for the summer, though you are more than welcome to bring your young friend with you." He said looking at Ginny who blushed as Kali agreed enthusiastically.

"In the mean time it would serve you well to revise your work from previous years as well as asking your teachers for next year what they recommend for summer work." McGonagall nodded in agreement. Turning to her Kalcon continued, Professor I would ask you to assist Harry in accessing the Potter Family Vault, with a view to moving Harry into the family home before summer's end." After this was translated and McGonagall agreed the groups separated and the Professor and two students headed back to the castle.

The conversation stalled after McGonagall left them in the entrance hall.

"So –err did you like Kali?" asked Harry suddenly nervous about what Ginny thought.

"She's beautiful Harry. You're lucky to have her."

"I know"

They continued walking to the common room in silence for some time before Ginny this time broke the silence.

"Harry, why did you invite me today?"

"I thought you'd like to meet Kali."

"But why not invite Ron or Hermione then? And...and why don't you mind me hearing about you trying to move? It's not like I can help?"

Sighing Harry stopped walking and turned to the younger girl. "Honestly? I don't know why I don't mind you knowing, I think it's because you've been something far worse than I have with the Dursley's and because of it we both have a link with Voldemort." Ginny shuddered but looked interested. "Besides, I had to tell someone about Kali and I think would probably just be jealous while Hermione would get all hyper and not leave the pair of us alone. To be honest I don't think I could handle that right now."

Ginny let out a small giggle in response. It was a rather nice sound. "I think you might be right." She answered. Shyly but with a little more confidence than before.

After finally reaching the common room Harry went up to his dorm room to put get rid of some of his outdoor clothes. Seeing no one else around he decided to take Kalcon's advice.

"Err Dobby." He asked the air nervously

A couple of seconds later there was a loud pop and Harry found himself accosted by an excited House Elf.

"Master Harry Potter calls Dobby?"

Somewhat amused Harry looked at the small creature. "Err Dobby, I was wondering if you like to become my personal elf?" Dobby just looked at Harry, moisture forming in his wide excited eyes. "I mean you don't have to answer right away you can think about."

"No Master Harry Potter sir, Dobby can think of no greater honour."

"Excellent, but please Dobby don't call me master, I'd really like it if we were just friends." A high pitched wail came from the small elf opposite. "Please don't cry Dobby." The noise stopped abruptly but Harry could see the elf's lip trembling.

"Now Dobby, the reason I wanted you to come and work for me, is because this summer, more than ever I need help. You see..."

As Harry described his life so far and his needs for the summer he could see Dobby getting increasingly irate. Watching the little creature filled with righteous anger was entertaining and he feared for his relatives if anything should happen this summer. However, ultimately his servant and friends anger would do him no favours.

"Dobby please, it's in the past and if everything goes to plan, I will never have to set foot in that place after this summer. Dobby appeared somewhat appeased by this, especially when he realised the importance of his role as Harry's protector in chief and his personal chef.


	4. Another Conversation and Another Bond

Disclaimer - Pretty much all thats good bout this belongs to a genius who made a fortune off it. Neither apply to me

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As the weeks to the end of term ran down, Harry applied himself to his work with vigour. His teachers, most noticeably Professors McGonagall and Flitwick commented on his new found dedication to his studies. Hermione of course was ecstatic. During the first of the free lessons caused by the lack of defence professor Harry made his way to a new part of the castle in the hope of catching one of his future professors. He had managed to see Professor Vector the previous day after lunch and she had recommended a number of rather scary looking tomes as 'a basic grounding in the principles of Arithmancy.' It was all Harry could do not to go and tell his familiar to stuff it.

Nevertheless, if he had done it for Arithmancy he could do it for Runes and so it was he found himself knocking on the door of the Ancient Runes Professor.

"Come in." He heard a woman's voice call out from behind the door. Walking in to the office he was shocked by the sight that awaited him pictures of what appeared to be tombs covered the wall in front of him. He could see what he thought where hieroglyphics among many other pictures. The wall to his left was covered with elaborate diagrams which looked like muggle blueprints. Each indicating a cross section of a dome, with an array of Runes noted at various points.

Finally Harry looked to his right and was surprised to see a middle aged woman peering out at him from behind a desk and through a sea of paperwork.

"Ah Mr Potter. I thought I might be seeing you. Minerva has already spoken of your switch in electives. It's all to the good I hope, I thought about trying to contact you in regard to your electives, your mother was rather gifted in Runes after all." Harry was rather taken aback by the casual mention of his mother and couldn't think of an adequate response. "Septima also mentioned that she spoke to you yesterday and that you left her office with a rather dazed look." The Professor smirked at him while Harry winced.

"I-It was just a lot to take in." Harry stammered trying to defend himself.

"Oh don't worry dear boy, I'm well aware of what Septima can be like on one of her rants, it's enough to scare anybody." Harry smiled and relaxed finding himself really rather liking the quirky Professor. "So you're interested in learning about a bit about Runes before the start of next year are you?" Acknowledging Harry's nod she continued. "Well you'll need to get the textbooks for next year, they're rather dry I'm afraid, Rune dictionary's and the like, but they're a necessary evil and you'll have to learn them." Harry nodded already resigned to the volume of work he would have to do.

"Now I could give you copies of those books but you're as well getting your own. It might even be worth speaking to one of the current fifth years who plan on dropping the subject to see if you can buy their book off them.

"Instead I would like you to look at these." She said pulling out a pile of seven books which though smaller than his Arithmancy pile was still rather intimidating. Looking at the young student in front of her Professor Babbling chuckled. "Don't be so nervous Mr Potter, I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised by these books. Each is a study on ancient magical cultures and the way in which they used Runes." Seeing the student visibly gulping she bit back another chuckle.

"I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, for instance, did you know that it's entirely through the use of Runes that the Great Wall of China is still standing, and how the magical areas of the libraries of Alexandria are protected, vicious things the wards there are, same with the pyramids, then you've got Stonehenge and the circle at Avebury, the statues on Easter Island and don't even get me started on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon." Harry found himself rather intrigued, Professor Babbling's enthusiasm was infectious.

"The problem with the Runes syllabus as it stands Mr Potter is that students must know the different Runes and what they all mean, and learning of that sort is really rather tedious." Harry agreed, easily imagining how dull just learning rune after rune would be. "As such most students get bored, never really paying attention to the beauty of runes, the power that a true Runemaster has. You see Runes in themselves are like let of the alphabet, there is no specific power to a rune, be it Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian cuneiform, Elder futharc anything, the power comes from the combination of those Runes, in the right combination, the Runes of the magical languages can do almost anything. These books should teach you some of the different specialities of various magical cultures, for example the battle magic of the Sumerians was largely based on Runic casting. Ultimately it's why they were defeated as while powerful, unless done by the truly gifted it can also be extremely slow." Harry found himself fascinated, caught up in the enthusiasm of the Professor for her chosen field. "The Egyptians were much more interested in building long term protections and their warding systems are phenomenal and are barely surpassed even now. Norse people were much more interested in strength of arms so much of their rune systems are built around the enchanting of weaponry. The Celts and Druids were much more in tune with the natural world so their work is on improving plants and animals and working in harmony with the seasons, other cultures such as Maori's are all about improving warrior skills strength, endurance and reflexes. Really with enough time, dedication and skill Runes can be used to do almost anything."

Harry sat in silence contemplating the speech he had just heard looking in awe at the books in front of him. If he had wanted to get as far away from Kali as possible after what he called the 'Vector Incident', then he could kiss her now. This is exactly what he needed.

Seeing the gleam in her future students eyes the Professor knew she had a convert, she decided to go for the kill; from the vague explanation from Minerva about Harry's change of heart on the subject of electives, she gathered that with the dangerous situations he had been involved with over the past two years he had decided he needed to know as much as possible in order to adequately defend himself. "Mr Potter, I understand from the other professors that you are trying to rededicate yourself to your studies." Harry looked up startled that he was being discussed by the professors. "You know, Runes and Potions are the two subjects that can allow magic to be carried out during the holidays without registering at the ministry, the amount of magic involved isn't large enough to register on the sensors. Just a thought. Now I'm afraid I have to prepare for a class, but feel free to come and see me again or if you're having trouble with some of the information in those books feel free to owl me over the summer."

After leaving the office it took Harry a couple of moments to regain his bearings. He couldn't believe a second new teacher had left him in a daze as well though this time for a completely different reason. He knew he'd been manipulated slightly, but frankly if half of what Professor Babbling had told him was true he didn't really care. Resolved to studying the books as closely as possible he moved on to his next lesson.

It was a week before the end of the year and lessons were over and Harry and Ginny were on the way to visit Kali. Harry had made the time to see Kali every day since their bonding and regularly brought Ginny along with him. In spite of the communication problems Kali and Ginny got on exceptionally well the young griffin allowing the girl to slowly break out of her shyness around Harry. The most obvious result of this opening up was the apparent shared dedication for improving their magical knowledge. While Hermione was pleased with Harry's sense of purpose, she disagreed with his learning methods.

One thing Harry had learnt while at Hogwarts was that while he could learn from books he did much better learning in a practical situation. Hermione baulked at the idea of practicing brand new spells without direct supervision. Ron on the other hand, though he understand Harry's point of view just did not share the same drive to learn.

Ginny was different, the desire to protect herself from ever being used again led her to follow Harry in his studies. More often than not Harry found himself teaching Ginny second year material rather than studying ahead. Strangely Harry didn't mind, partly because it gave him a better understanding of previous work but largely because he himself understood Ginny's need.

It was while Harry and Ginny were walking towards the forbidden forest for their meeting that they came across a distraught Hagrid.

"Hagrid, what's wrong?" asked Ginny concerned

"It's the animal's!" he wailed blowing his nose loudly on a damp former tablecloth. "There's been a fight in the forest." The managed to get Hagrid back into his hut where even Fang was subdued. Ginny put on the kettle and sat down while Harry questioned the kindly groundskeeper.

"Why did they fight Hagrid."

"Well the it's the acromantula, they've been restless since tha' fight with you and Kali. Not 'ad a proper meal see." Answered Hagrid still dabbing his eyes. "Anyways, some of 'em, bout twenty took it upon 'emselves to get any food they could. Th-They attacked Fluffy." He burst into a renewed bout of tears, soaking Ginny who had her arm on his elbow trying to comfort him.

"I-It's worse than tha' even." They heard through muffled sobs. Fluffy and his mate were killed, but they took out Aragog and Mosag, now they won't let me near the place in the forest and the damn centaurs are up in arms." Ginny patted Hagrid's arm gently looking at Harry, neither of them really knew what to say. "L-least I managed to rescue the pup though."

At that the pair of students looked round and sure enough noticed small three-headed ball of grey-brown fluff. Each of the three pairs of round eyes looked at Ginny intently.

"Oh my! Well aren't you gorgeous!" she exclaimed, completely taken with the three foot tall puppy she knew would someday turn into a vicious twelve foot tall brute. As she slowly edged her hand towards the pup, he responded in kind, all six eyes never leaving Ginny's.

Harry and Hagrid looked at the spectacle in front of them, Hagrid in wonder, Harry contemplating why this seemed familiar. That was it! He thought, familiar, the baby Cerberus wants to bond with Ginny! He was unsure whether to interrupt the situation, admittedly he loved his familiar bond but he wouldn't have minded having some say in the initial situation.

"Err Ginny." He whispered

"What?" she replied quietly eyes never leaving the approaching puppy.

"I think he wants to form a familiar bond with you."

Ginny's head whipped round to look at Harry who now had her full attention, as he did with the Cerberus.

"A-are you sure?" she asked voice quavering. She had always wanted a pet but never dreamed she would get a familiar, and such a powerful one at that.

"Ask him" Harry responded, I'm sure he understands. "don't you boy?" he asked, this time looking at the dog.

All three heads nodded in response, tongues lolling outside their mouths and panting excitedly. The heads turned as one back to face Ginny.

"W-would you like to be my familiar?" she asked nervously, her voice barely audible.

The response was overwhelming as all three heads nodded as the creature barked excitedly.

"I thinks that's a yes Ginny" said Harry quietly, not wishing to intrude on the intimacy of the situation.

Ginny held out her hands and each head systematically took her small hands in its mouth and pierced the skin. Ginny winced, but then she as Harry had done, saw the animal in front of her inflict small wounds on its legs. At this point Harry told her to place the cuts on her hands over the cuts on the creature's legs. As she did so she felt a strange sensation. Harry had told her about his own familiar bond and the pain of the process. She had been expecting something similar, instead she felt an indescribable warmth and a new cleanliness, as if her soul had been cleaned.

After a few moments the feeling disappeared, and she felt more like herself than she had done all year, the playfulness and mischievousness her brother's had all noted had returned. It was as if the effect of the diary on her psyche had been muted. She knew it hadn't been removed. There was a hard edge to her personality which had never been there before, an aggressive streak, a desire to protect people from the same situation she had been in.

Hagrid had been watching the unfolding situation in awe, silently astounded by what he had seen, it was a rare thing to see the formation of a full familiar bond. Full familiar bonds were rare in themselves but to have two occur so soon. As far as anyone knew no one had ever bonded to a Cerberus, some like Hagrid managed to tame them, but much like griffin's the combination of power and the required personality traits was rare. Playful and carefree, but with a hard edge, what Hagrid had just seen was history in the making. A shy yip brought all three of the humans back to reality and focused their attention fully on the creature in front of them.

"Well first of all we need a name for you don't we beautiful." cooed Ginny to her new familiar," any preferences?" there was a small bark which only Ginny could understand but the others interpreted as 'no'. "Well then how about Samson? You look like a Samson, all big and strong but cuddly." The excited yips from all three heads told them all that the name had been accepted.

"Well Samson I'm sorry to say I've only got a week here that we can be together before I have to leave for the summer." They both looked sad at that and one of the heads let out a small whine. "I know boy I'm upset as well but Hagrid here will look after while I'm away, won't you?" she turned and looked pleadingly at Hagrid.

"Course I will, yer've go' nuffin' to worry about and I'll right to yer let yer know how he's doin'."

"Thanks Hagrid!" responded Ginny earnestly. "and hopefully," she continued turning back to Samson and rubbing behind the ears of two of his heads, you'll be able to play with Kali, Harry's familiar too." She looked at Harry questioningly.

"I don't know" he replied "but we can go find out now, we're late for meeting her now Samson can come with us and we'll find out."

As it turned out they needn't have worried and both Kali and Samson took to each other immediately, the playful nature of each seemingly excited to find a partner as their bonded looked on amused.

A large shadow passed over them scaring the human pair, but they settled once it was established as Kalcon. He too seemed amused by the pair of familiars and eyed them a moment before turning to Harry.

"How goes your progress Harry?" they had not seen each other since the meeting with McGonagall, in spite of the daily meetings between Harry and Kali.

"Well sir. I've bonded with Dobby and he's agreed to help me this summer. I've begun work on my new subjects and found some of it fascinating, and I've been teaching Ginny here some of the second year while revising it myself, as well as looking at some more advanced stuff."

Kalcon nodded, clearly pleased with his surrogate son. "Well it seems like progress has been made, what of the plans with your professor for a new home?"

"I have a meeting with the professor after lunch today to discuss arrangements sir, I should know much more after that."

"Very well, one more thing, while the familiar bonding healed the poor physical condition you were in, it did nothing to improve your physical prowess, as an adopted griffin, which is what you are now" inside Harry swelled in pride at these words "you should be aware of a fundamental part of our society and that of the animal kingdom, to reach your complete potential you need a fully functioning mind in a fully functioning body. I have seen that ridiculous game that wizards pass off as exercise." Harry bristled at the slight against quidditch but decided to hold his tongue. "It will not get you into the correct physical condition to defend yourself. You need to work on alternative exercises to improve your physical condition."

Though still somewhat annoyed by the casual dismissal of quidditch Harry couldn't help but agree with the sentiment regarding it's lack of conditioning.

After the meeting Harry discussed what was said with Ginny who agreed with Kalcon's assessment, though she too bristled at the slight against the sport, much to Harry's surprise. It was Ginny who suggested Harry learn Martial Arts. Harry was surprised by her knowledge of such a thing until she explained that Charlie had wanted to take classes when he heard about them from a muggleborn friend. The only reason she remembered was because it had turned into a blazing row between Charlie and her mother because Charlie had mispronounced it and Mrs Weasley didn't believe in allowing a twelve year old boy to practice 'marital arts'.

They both laughed at the story over lunch before Harry headed off to his meeting with his head of house.


	5. Confirmation and Details

Disclaimer - Not mine Not Mine Not mine. Let's all agree nothing here is mine (except Kali Kalcon and Samson obviously) and move on.

You have no doubt noticed by now my grammar struggles, apostrophes, sentence structures and the like. These have been pointed out to me and I fully agree. I am currently without a beta and have no desire to be a writer but nevertheless I would like to improve. Feel free to point out any issues If it turns out I've underestimated just how bad it is I'll redo it.

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Harry was ushered in to the professor's office and asked to sit down.

"So Mr Potter, I know we spoke of your desire to improve your study habits but I must say I have been greatly impressed with your dedication and performance in my class." Said the professor looking at him with pride

"Thank you professor."

"I have also been rather impressed with the recent performance of Miss Weasley which she informs me is largely due to your teaching." Harry blushed.

"She's really very good professor and it helps me revise everything to have someone to teach it to."

McGonagall smiled "I must say I was rather surprised to learn that the pair of you had been spending so much time together. I was under the impression she struggled to speak in your presence."

"Err well professor it just seemed like she needed help. Voldemort had hurt her a lot and she needed someone to relate to. I also thought she might need something to take her mind off things and Kali seemed to help."

"Indeed well I am most pleased that you have decided to take her under your wing. I have also heard from your other Professor's Flitwick and Sprout how impressed they have been with both of your efforts." Harry turned even redder under the continued praise. "I believe you also spoke with Professor Vector and Professor Babbling regarding your future electives. May I ask why you haven't sought out Professor Kettleburn?"

"Well professor with the bond with Kali I thought I knew enough to be going along with and the other two subjects seemed much more complicated to begin with. I did plan on trying to meet him before we leave though."

"Excellent. Mr Potter, I got the impression from Professor Babbling that you are rather taken with Runes."

"Oh yes Professor, it's been fascinating reading what they can be used for, especially that I can use them over the holidays." Harry responded enthusiastically. McGonagall's lips pursed.

"Hmm, I'm not sure I would have chosen to share that bit of information with you Mr. Potter, it may encourage behaviour similar to that of your father."

"Was my father that bad" Harry asked in wonder, he really hadn't heard much about his parents in his years in the wizarding world and he leapt upon every scrap of information he could.

"In a word yes." She replied with a wry smile. "He and his friends were a very gifted bunch on the whole. Unfortunately they chose to spend most of their time dedicated to the pursuit of practical jokes." Her eyes drifted away from Harry, reminiscing with a small smile on her face. After thirty seconds of silence Harry cleared his throat. "Sorry, they and your mother were among my favourite students." She sighed deeply.

"Anyway, Harry one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you was to ask how you would feel about bringing Professor Flitwick and Professor Babbling up to date with your plans for the summer? The reason I ask is that the most effective wards are a combination of Charms and Runes and between the pair of them they make a rather formidable warding team. If you are uncomfortable with that I could perhaps try, or if needs be you may perhaps pay the goblins to ward your home, though they're services do not come cheaply."

Harry quickly contemplated all he had just heard and was surprised to find he had no objections. "If you think they could help I would be happy to let them help me."

"Excellent. I do have one other thing to discuss with you though Mr Potter." The professor looked around as though checking she wouldn't be overheard. "I understand that Professor Babbling also told you that potions would not register on the ministry sensors." At Harry's nod she continued "Do you know why Transfiguration is studied as a seven year course Mr Potter." Surprised by the sudden change in direction of the conversation Harry shook his head.

"In theory, the course should not be that hard, there is after all only a few rules, and it is all about turning one form of solid matter to another form of solid matter, strictly speaking one might expect the course to be done within the year."

Harry was gobsmacked at what his professor had told him, really it was quite true, was there that much difference between changing a pin cushion to a hedgehog or changing a desk to a lion?

Seeing his dawning comprehension McGonagall continued, "The reason it takes so long is due to the training in intent. To cast a charm you have to have a vague idea what it will do and as you cast focus on this result. In terms of Charms this is usually enough, though a more focused intent will always help. Transfiguration however is all about training the mind to use magic more effectively. I can easily intend for a matchstick to become a teaspoon but points in Transfiguration are gained for the intricacy of the work, is the teaspoon patterned, is it the right size, how much finesse has gone into the spellwork.

"Once the students are suitably focused Transfiguration moves to conjuration, where in theory, objects are brought forth from nothing, in reality it is another form of Transfiguration only this time with air molecules."

She looked intently at the student in front of her before taking off her glasses and casually wiping them on a handkerchief. "I bring this up because in terms of Transfiguration there is limited progress to be made in the field. The pinnacle is something called the animagus transformation. It is where a human is able to wandlessly transform themselves into some form of animal, the animal is closely related to their character, though magical power also plays a significant role." With that she promptly disappeared and a stern looking tabby cat appeared in her place. Harry was excited by the impressive display of magic.

"Just before their death I learned that while in school, in fact during his fifth year, your father succeeded in this transformation, though I do not know what form he took.

"Now the reason I am telling you is to give you something to reach for. I have noted that you appear to learn much more effectively through practical application, rather than through by rote book learning." Harry nodded, he had concluded much the same himself. "If you improve your transfiguration skills at your current rate you too may well be able to complete the transformation.

"The transformation required the brewing of a potion which induces a vision of your animal. The potion itself should be no problem for a focussed third year student. However, it does take two months to brew, meaning you would be able to complete it over the course of the summer."

Harry was beyond excited now, he had a goal for the summer, a goal that would result in a connection to his father. "Th-Thank you for telling me this professor." he stammered, unable to express how much it meant to him.

"Think nothing of it, it's the least I can do to tell you about your parents. If you like, we could get together regularly next year and I could tell you a bit about them, I believe you will find some of the other professor's who were here at the time more than willing to do the same. I believe your mother was a particular favourite of Professor Flitwick."

Harry couldn't believe it had never occurred to him to ask the teachers about his parents, particularly given the 'fountain of knowledge' Snape was in regard to his father.

It was two days before the end of the year and Harry had found himself spending even more time with Kali, Ginny and Samson, so much so that Hermione in particular was getting rather suspicious. He put that to the back of his mind and thought about his meeting with Professor Babbling later that day, she'd asked him to come to her office, he assumed it was in regard to the wards that they may be putting up around his new home but Harry wanted to talk about something else.

He had thought about his last summer and the effect that hearing Dobby had had on his family and decided that if Dobby was going to be around all the time he would have to do something about it. Reading the Egyptian rune book he had discovered that runic sequences could be put together that had various applications one of which was a privacy ward. It had to be modified slightly to work in Harry's bedroom but Harry thought he'd managed it, he was just interested in how to get it to work.

As it turned out it would be easier than expected, utilising Dobby's magic the privacy ward could be set up with no ill effects and no detection from the ministry, through some small additions from Professor Babbling and Professor Flitwick there was also an in built notice-me-not effect meaning that once he was home the Dursleys would forget he was there. It may be slightly depressing for the boy and he was wholly reliant on Dobby but he assured them it was better than the alternative. After Professor McGonagall had filled the pair in on the details they were delighted to help, particularly in light of his new proactive approach, Professor Babbling in particular was ecstatic to see the practical application of runes from one so young and both expressed an interest in meeting Kali.

So it was that on the final day of Harry's second year a larger than expected group trouped their way into the Forbidden Forest. Professor's McGonagall, Flitwick and Babbling were all shocked by the appearance of Ginny with Samson and did not know what to make of the two students who had bonded such unusual familiars so young. Hagrid of course couldn't be happier with the chance to work with such a young griffin and Cerberus. When Kalcon appeared Professor Babbling backed away startled while Professor Flitwick squeaked audibly. The two students were oblivious, caught up in saying goodbye to their respective familiars. It was only when Kalcon spoke and demanded Harry translate that order was restored.

When the plan for Harry to take up martial arts was put forward and after they were explained to both the Griffin's and the Professors all parties agreed in principal to the idea. It was also suggested that a regular cardiovascular exercise routine should be established, even if it was just a regular run.

While slightly put out that his life was being decided for him, overall he was more pleased that so many people seemed to care. The feeling of warmth only increased when, via Harry the Professors discussed his recent progress via Kalcon. Ginny looked on rather amused by the whole situation. It seemed Professor McGonagall had gone round each of Harry's teachers, both current and prospective to obtain reading lists of background material they thought would be particularly beneficial. He was particularly intrigued by the Potions offerings which did not come from Snape, but rather a former Potions master named Horace Slughorn. They promised to offer a comprehensive review of the basic interactions of various ingredients. Harry was rather intrigued by the prospect.

So it was that Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express to make his way to Privet Drive for what was hopefully the finally time, without his beloved owl. She was winging her way to Flourish and Blotts so they could prepare the large order for collection tomorrow by Dobby. All in all Harry was rather excited by the end of the year, it promised so much for the future, and more than anything else gave him the knowledge that he was cared for.


	6. The Start of a Wonderful Summer

Disclaimer - I think this is the last disclaimer I'm going to write for this story because if you don't know these characters aren't mine I'm not entirely sure what you're doing reading Harry Potter Fanfiction.

* * *

Harry collapsed onto his bed in Privet Drive after the drive from the station with his 'family'. It turned out that Dobby had not been idle during the weeks since he had agreed to serve Harry. The room was spotless, the toys and furniture all fixed, the bed definitely hadn't been this comfortable last year. Dobby had also made sure the new privacy/notice-me-not ward was up as well as arranging something similar for Harry to keep on him that would allow him to use the bathroom and shower. It could have been quite an unpleasant start to the summer if Dobby hadn't done that!

It took twenty minutes of lying down on the bed before the realization that there had been no shouts of boy or freak from those he shared a house with. A wide grin spread across his face, it looked that this summer was going to be a significant upgrade on the previous one, especially as this time Dobby was actually helping him rather than just thinking he was.

With his new found studiousness Harry decided it was as good a time as any to draw up a timetable for the rest of the summer, or at least the two weeks until McGonagall took him to his vault. The stern Professor had somehow managed to convince the headmaster into letting Harry visit his family vault, officially so that he could look up some books in regard to his interest in Runes, as it was well known his mother has amassed quite an impressive collection, even in such a tragically short lifespan. Harry could barely contain his excitement, and though this was largely due to the prospect of a new home, no small part of it was due to the books. He wondered what had become of him, was it all due to the meeting with Kali? was Hermione finally effecting him? or was it just because it was another chance to reconnect with his heritage? Putting those bizarre thoughts out of his mind he settled to the task at hand.

Seeing the books he had been allowed to borrow for the summer, in conjunction with those he had been advised to buy, Harry had a veritable library at his disposal this summer. Looking at the proposed book list for each of his subjects he noted that for each of the 'wanded' subjects he was advised to look at the same series of books, _A Guide to Magical Theory_, including beginner's, intermediate and advanced volumes, there was also an intriguing look book _A Wizards Guide to Technology, How Muggle Science Effects Magic._ It was a rather thin book but the defence teacher for the coming year made a special note of its quality.

Since he couldn't actually perform wand based magic for the summer, magical theory seemed like an effective alternative, particularly since it was deemed so important by two of his favourite teachers. Then there was Potions, if the animagus potion was going to take around two months to brew then he should probably wait until he knew where he would be for the final two months of the holidays so as not to have to move it in the middle, he would also need to buy new cauldrons if his current one was going to be full all summer. In the meantime though, he had the book on ingredient interactions to study. Herbology was another problem, practically there was not a lot he could do, and there was only so much reading he could manage in the subject. He thought about contacting Neville but that again he should probably wait until he had a better idea of where he would be for the rest of the summer. If it was to be in his ancestral home he was likely to have much more space for plants, maybe even his own greenhouse. Astronomy and History of Magic where again things he had to plough through. He couldn't even really do his own Astronomy work at the moment due to plethora of lampposts along the street lowering the visibility of the constellations. Nevertheless there was still reading to be done. He snorted remembering the conversation with Kalcon when he suggested concentrating more on specific subjects. The icy stare he received sent shivers down his spine even now, a week later, it wasn't helped by the fact that Professor McGonagall was giving him the same look. The tension was only broken when Ginny started giggling before punching him on the arm and calling him an idiot.

Harry was confused by his new relationship with Ginny. It had really sprung up out of nowhere. She was still shy around him occasionally and he certainly wasn't as close to her as he was to Ron or Hermione but he felt she understood him and he her much better than either of the other two did. Harry's past, both in terms of Voldemort, and the Dursleys gave him a much more effective insight into the darker side of humanity than either Ron or Hermione, or indeed any of the Weasleys, though from what Ginny said about Bill's work in Egypt he may have some idea. He liked to think he had helped her, though he didn't think it was him so much as Samson, then again without him Ginny would never have met Samson, then again Samson might still have his parents. It was a vicious cycle.

Harry knew she still had nightmares about the Chamber. That was unsurprising. Though from what she said they gradually got better even before she bonded to the young Cerberus. He decided he needed to write to her when Hedwig got back, to see how she was doing away from Samson, he knew he was missing Kali. He should also write to Ron and Hermione, he hadn't spent as much time as he should with them over the last few weeks of the year and he was rather guilty about it. He should probably write to Hagrid as well as he could tell him about Kali and Samson. He smiled at the thought he had so many people to write to this summer, and hopefully this time he would get letters and not have any other bizarre creature interfering with him.

Turning back to his proposed two week timetable he was rather shocked by how full it was, he planned for an hour of exercise every morning before breakfast. This was to be running around the small local park until he got fitter followed by press-ups and sit ups in his room, he half thought about asking Dobby to install a chin up bar but felt that was yet another thing best left until later. After an hour for breakfast and a shower he would read. Wanded subjects so Charms Transfiguration and Defence before lunch, starting with the magical theory stuff, Potions, Herbology and History in the afternoon, then Runes, Arithmancy and Astronomy in the evening, each for an hour. It would be painfully hard work for a while but he could reorganise after two weeks, besides, it was mainly the new books, his diligence at the end of the previous year had meant that he was mostly caught up with the necessary reading.

His first day in the new regime couldn't have gotten off to a more depressing start, he had harboured the vain hope that despite Kalcon's disparaging comments, Quidditch would give him a significant boost to his fitness campaign. After being forced to stop his run after half a mile due to the stitch in his side, he was forced to concede that sitting down on a broomstick for two hours at a time in no way helped his muscle development. After he got back to his room he was slightly more pleased with the fifteen press ups and twenty sit ups he managed before being forced to stop, though the numbers were still depressing. The roaming notice-me-not device that Dobb had given him was a godsend though, he had never been allowed as long as he wanted in the shower, even at school there was always someone needing to use it. As Harry felt the scalding stream run over his already sore muscles he tried to convince himself that this was just the first step in a long process and it would get easier with time. By the time he got out of the shower he had at least partially convinced himself as he was much more upbeat about the whole situation. He quickly realised that his meals from Dobby would be the highpoint of his days, while the Hogwarts house elves were exceptional, they catered for a significant number of people. Dobby on the other hand was solely focussed on meeting Harry's needs, though he was under orders from both Professor McGonagall and Kalcon via Harry to make sure he ate a relatively healthy diet in spite of Harry's occasional protests.

By the time his breakfast was done Dobby had returned from Diagon Alley with Harry's new books and his studying time began. His pre-lunch study of magical theory was both fascinating and incredibly hard work. It appeared to be built around four factors, the strength of will of the caster, what the casters intent is in casting the spell, the strength with which they can cast it and the level of control they have over the spell. According to the books, well the beginners guide he was currently reading, wandless magic should be possible for each and every spell however wands are used for two reasons, firstly they help to focus the mind on the spell about to be cast improving both the will and intent levels of the caster, secondly wands allow much finer control over the magic increasing the finesse of the spell, while this might not be necessary in wide-area effect spells like notice-me-not charms, for transfiguration and the like details are exceptionally important.

Harry's first afternoon he decided to concentrate on Potions believing that to be the area he needed to cover the most ground. Opening the large tome detailing ingredient interactions he quickly found himself both intrigued by the subject and furious at his 'teacher'. The introduction to the book was surprisingly simple and Harry found himself making copious notes. Through it all one suggestion was made thoroughly clear, under no circumstances should any student 'blind brew', that is attempt a potion without thoroughly studying each ingredient and how it interacts with the others. While clearly an attempt to promote the significance of the book it made a valid point, it was fundamentally unsafe to let a bunch of small children chuck a load of dangerous ingredients together and stir without explaining necessary precautions first. Harry resolved there and then to try and brew a potion from the previous years at least once a day over the summer after studying the necessary interactions. It might also be an idea to read ahead and do the same with those potions as Snape most certainly wouldn't do it in the lesson time.

After dinner had sent Dobby off to Diagon Alley again to get a large supply of Potion vials, after all, if he was going to brew them he may as well keep the good ones, and decided to start back at the very beginning tomorrow with the potion to cure boils he had brewed in the very first Potions lesson.

While Runes fascinated him, Harry new that he needed to dedicate significant amounts of time to Arithmancy and History. Arithmancy was a struggle but he persevered as he could see the use, However, he made the mistake of attempting to read his History books before he went to bed. It was less than twenty minutes before he was snoring gently.

Harry woke up when his alarm went off at 6.30 the next morning, with a monstrous crick in his neck and seemingly each and every one of his muscles sore. Resigned to his new regime he awkwardly got up and stretched, trying to relieve at least some of the tension in his aching muscles.

He was pleased to note that he was able to run a little further today before coming to a halt. He also increased his tally to 18 press ups and 22 sit ups. After falling asleep yesterday he decided to change the schedule and move History to just before dinner, Arithmancy to just after, then Runes. Any extra time after his studies he would use to write letters to his friends now that Hedwig had returned.

This routine quickly became the norm for Harry and the two weeks to McGonagall's arrival were flying past. He was increasingly proud of his brewing skills. He knew he would never be a Potions master and he had the odd spoilt potion but now he was beginning to understand when to be extra careful the subject became much more interesting. As it turned out the author had written another book which documented the treatment of various ingredients, both in their native form and in terms of adding them to Potions. The book came highly recommended, though it may largely have been due to the fact it was the same author. Nevertheless Harry had ordered it and was awaiting its arrival. His physical training was coming on as well, he had still not been able to run for the whole mile round the park but he was getting closer. The only disappointing thing was that he hadn't had any replies from his friends yet, he was rather nervous about the situation, not in the same way as last year, he knew there was a reason for last year and it was making him breakfast. No, he was nervous because Hedwig had been gone for four days, sure she had four letters to deliver, at opposite ends of the country, but she had always managed before.

* * *

Ron Weasley was rather annoyed, and for once it wasn't entirely due to his brothers. The source of his annoyance was Harry Potter. When Harry mentioned at the back end of last year he was switching electives and taking his studies more seriously Ron could see his point but wanted no part of it, everyone knew Runes and Arithmancy were difficult, far better to take Divination. Of course what he didn't expect was that for the following four weeks he would see his best friend for barely more than an hour a day that wasn't meal related. Then there as the fact that his friend was spending even more time with his baby sister than him, sure he seemed to help her after the Chamber but they didn't need to spend SO much time together surely. He looked across at his clock, 2.30 in the morning. He couldn't believe he was still awake. He never lost sleep, it was Harry that's what it was, he was angry he was being ditched by his best friend for his little sister. Deep down he wasn't surprised. His siblings were all special, the curse breaker, the dragon tamer, the scholar, the pranksters, then there was Ginny. First female Weasley in Merlin knows how long, being Harry's best friend was all Ron had.

Needing a drink and to clear his head he got up to make his way down to the kitchen. He was making his way past Ginny's room when he heard thrashing around from within. He stood stock still for a moment, undecided as to what to do, when he heard whimpering and sobbing from inside. His mind quickly made up he crossed the landing and knocked on Ginny's door before opening it.

"Gin? Are you alright." He called out quietly. He received no answer but looking at the pale shaking form of his sister he knew what it was, though he didn't really know what to do, Ginny always had older brothers to do the comforting when she had nightmares. Thinking back to what Mum used to do for him he moved slowly to the edge of the bed and sat down before gently stroking her hair while whispering "It's okay now Gin. You're going to be fine."

Her eyes flew open at the first contact and she flew away from him looking around the room wild-eyed. What she saw appeared to calm her because her breathing settled and she looked back at Ron.

"You're okay Gin, It was just a nightmare it wasn't real. D-Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head, flaming hair flying back and forth desperately, doing her best to shake the images out of her head.

Sighing he continued "Is it always like this?"

After a number of long moments she answered "N-not s-since the first f-few nights. Harry helped. Knowing he was around was good." Came the whisper.

Not knowing what else to do Ron opened his arms and waited for his sister to come to him before enveloping her in a loving embrace. Okay so maybe he couldn't be that angry at his best friend.

* * *

Hermione Granger was a smart girl, everyone knew it, they always had, it was what led to her being an outcast in primary school. She liked knowing things, learning things puzzling things out for herself. The problem was her current puzzle, her friend Harry Potter, her first friend really, her best friend. She was good friends with Ron of course but they argued so much! It just wasn't conducive to learning to argue that much! The problem was he was working hard, he was studying, apparently the Chamber incident had been a major wake up call. While she applauded the dedication with which he had obviously set about his task, she couldn't help but wonder what would happen to her now? If Harry and Ron didn't need her to make them study why would they bother with her? Harry was famous and he could hang around with whoever he wanted, Ron was so funny, especially when he wasn't trying to be. What did she bring to the table. Even if they wanted a girls opinion there were plenty of girlier girls in Gryffindor. Her dorm mates for starters, and then Harry had been spending so much time with Ginny Weasley recently. Not that she was jealous, Merlin knows the girl needed help and if anyone can relate to her it would be Harry, but a girl couldn't help but feel left out.

Her musings were interrupted by a soft hoot and she came back to herself to see a beautiful and familiar Snowy Owl tapping on the window.

"Hello Hedwig, I was just thinking about you." She said excitedly, as the owl cocked her head to one side she restated, "Well Harry really but as your my link to him you count as well!" The gentle chirruping response appeared to be laughter. Hedwig held out her leg and Hermione saw four letters attached one was messily labelled 'Harry', she had seen that writing before and assumed it was from Hagrid, then one to herself, one to Ron and one to Ginny all in Harry's scrawl. Removing her letter she made her way over to her dresser and gave Hedwig an Owl treat.

"Hedwig, since you waited for Hagrid to reply would you mind waiting for me as well?"

Hedwig nodded her head and appeared to settle herself on the dresser, while Hermione opened Harry's letter.

_Hi Hermione,_

_Hope the holiday's are treating you as well as they are me! Honestly it's been fantastic I don't know if I mentioned it but I worked out a simple runic ward for my room. The Dursley's can't hear anything I do and it's got a notice-me-not function as well so they forget I'm there. It's a bit lonely but really compared to the usual its great!_

Hermione didn't know whether to be pleased for her friend or burst into tears at the thought that he had to spend his summer with little to no human contact. Objectively she had heard about abusive families and such but the reality that she knew a victim of such a household appalled her. Especially when it was someone like Harry.

_You'll be pleased to know I've set up a study routine. I haven't finished the summer homework yet, or even started most of it. But before you start ranting about the importance of it, it's only because I'm reviewing everything I know for every subject before I start so that I can do it better, no point having to do it more than once._

_I've also found some really interesting books on magical theory, it explains how it's only will power, intent, power and control that matter to any spell based magic but then other stuff like emotions can have a big effect. I'm not finished with it yet but I'll let you borrow it back at school. There's also another really cool one about using muggle science to help understand magical processes. It's been recommended by whoever the new defence teacher is. I'm not sure but if the book is anything to go by they're going to be great!_

_Anyway that's enough about me, how do you like being home? Do your parents know about EVERYTHING? Are you going on holiday again this year? Let me know how you're doing._

_Harry._

Hermione smiled as she finished the letter, it seemed she would always have a friend in Harry. The chirp she heard brought her attention back to Hedwig who gave her a look which clearly said '_Was there any doubt?_'

She picked up a blank bit of parchment and a quill and began her response.

* * *

Neither Ron nor Ginny mentioned the previous night to anyone else, though Ron felt he should the pleading looks he got from Ginny told him she couldn't handle anyone else knowing what had happened.

It was after dinner and Ron was about to challenge anyone who would play to a game of chess when he was called through to the kitchen. He was pleased by the appearance of Hedwig, especially now he was harbouring fewer ill feelings towards Harry. He saw that she was in fact carrying a multitude of letters, two for him, one clearly from Harry, the other Hermione, two to Harry, one possibly from Hagrid, and one to Ginny. A brief swell of betrayal rose within Ron before he remembered the sight of his sister last night and pushed the feelings down.

"Hey Ginny! He yelled. "There's a letter for you!" before he settled down to open his own.

_Hey mate,_

_How's the holiday? Mine's been much better, muggles left me alone so far. Course that's because I've set up a runic ward that makes them forget about me so I don't have to do chores. Told you you should have switched to Runes mate!_

Ron groaned. It was his day for dishes tomorrow.

_Life's been peaceful but I've got nothing to do but read since I'm stuck in the room most of the day, and no books but school ones. I know I spent the back end of the year studying but I might be pushing Hermione at this rate. Unfortunately for you mate she knows I've been working, so she may come down extra hard on you. Sorry._

_Anyway let me know how you're doing._

_Harry_

Opening Hermione's letter with some trepidation now, knowing quite well what Harry said was likely true.

_Ronald_

_I hope the holidays are treating you well. I've enjoyed spending time with my parents, I really missed them over Christmas. Before I forget I wanted to ask how Ginny is? She seemed to be coping rather well back in school._

_I've heard from Harry and he's mentioned how he's taking his studying more seriously. It wouldn't hurt you to do the same. We start our OWLs this year, you should be doing everything you can to prepare._

_I'll stop there, I don't want to overburden Hedwig._

_Love_

_Hermione_

Well it wasn't as bad as it could have been but it appeared both his best friends were now bookworms, he found it rather shameful.

* * *

When Ron called her through because she had a letter she really didn't expect to see Hedwig. Perhaps a long distance owl from Egypt or Romania but Harry's owl! That was a surprise. She wasn't sure what she felt about Harry anymore, she still had a bit of her crush but given he had literally saved her from a terrible beast by slaying it with a shining sword that was understandable. The weeks that followed the Chamber could have been awful, she was pleased the school didn't know the full details otherwise it would have been, but Harry seemed to have taken it upon himself to make sure she was okay. Slowly she came out of her shell and a few days she managed not to blush round him at all! Kali was beautiful and she couldn't believe that she knew about her when Ron and Hermione were still in the dark. She did kind of agree with Harry though, from what she knew of Hermione she wouldn't leave him alone about the bond and she definitely knew Ron would be jealous.

Ginny felt sorry for Ron, the last of so many boys and from a poor family, he had nothing of his own. When he goes to school and has a chance to get aware from their shadow he befriends the most famous student in the wizarding world. It was sad really, though quite funny. Her own familiar bond had been a joy, the only problem being that Samson could not come home with her, he was just too conspicuous. She missed him already. Between him and Harry that nightmares from the Chamber had been held at bay. Now they were back with a vengeance. Steeling herself offered Hedwig an owl treat before taking the proffered letter and sitting down to read it at the table.

_Hi Ginny,_

_I haven't written before but I feel like after the last month of school we had gotten to know each other quite well and I'd like to know you better. I know you know most of my plans for the summer and they've begun as planned. I got some really interesting books on defence and stuff that I think will definitely help when I can use a wand again, if you want to carry on learning like the end of last term I'd be happy to help._

_I know we haven't talked much about what you went through but I know I've had nightmares about it so I'm sure you have. If you need to talk about it you can write to me, or talk to your brothers, from what you and Ron have said I'm sure Bill could help. I know it's painful to talk about Ginny but after talking a bit about what went on at the Dursleys I can honestly say it helps._

_I've written to Hagrid about Kali and I can ask about Samson too if you like since I know you don't have your own owl, we can both ask via Hedwig! Let me know if that's what you want to do. _

_Hope your having a good holiday. Or at least better than it could have been_

_Harry_

Ginny was exhausted reading the letter, she had been so nervous about it especially as she didn't know what was going on really, was he feeling obligated to her because he saved her or because she was his best friends sister, or did he genuinely like her?

Her relief when he said he wanted to know her better was palpable. It wasn't just because he felt he had to that they were talking! And he agreed to keep training with her. What was it he had said. We both need to get stronger, faster and better so that next time we meet him they could take the bastard down! She really didn't want to meet him again but she never wanted to feel that helpless again. Before they left Harry made sure she knew most of her first year books back to front so there wasn't a lot she could learn, though perhaps she could borrow from one of her brothers, probably Percy. However, one thing she felt she could do was the exercise. When Kalcon had berated harry about his physical fitness he had definitely glanced at her too, though when Harry translated for her he also said something about young wizards not having to be quite as careful about overdoing it as young witches. At first she thought it was a throw away comment but now she thought it was directed at her. Telling her she needed to exercise too but to be careful in the way I go about it. Resolved that at least she had found something that would help her feel stronger she looked at the next bit of the letter and paled. He wanted her to talk about it. She knew she should but she couldn't write to Harry about it. Writing to Bill though, that she might manage, she knew since his job in Egypt had begun that Bill had seen things in the tombs, scary disgusting things. Yes she could write to Bill, but first to reply to Harry...

* * *

This chapter is very much a set up and descriptive Chapter, in fact I can honestly say there is going to be very little action for a while so if you're going to carry on reading you probably need to get used to it.

The next few Chapters will come thick and fast up until the end of Summer but then I'm not quite sure the best way to do the whole prisoner storyline so if anyone has any ideas send them along.

I warn you now though, if you've looked at my other story, Feels Like Home you will notice I have a thing for Runes and the Animagus process. That hasn't changed.


	7. Gringotts and Shopping

Yes its a cliche but frankly any story in which Harry sorts is life out and doesn't include shopping I'm not sure I really trust.

* * *

The two weeks were up and Harry couldn't wait for actual human contact, he had heard the Dursley's clattering about the house oblivious to his presence but he made sure he never saw them. Dobby was a godsend but he was still rather enthusiastic about the situation, not that that was a bad thing but it wouldn't do him any harm to actually talk to someone.

Hedwig had been and gone again he had decided that Hagrid then back then Hermione and Weasleys and back was the best way, that way he could relay the information about Samson to Ginny. The route would be even quicker soon since Hermione was going to France so Hermione would send her off to Hermione separately and less frequently but with longer letters. Hermione's response to his letter had seemed odd at first, she seemed relieved and had nothing but praise for him for studying s diligently. The relieved tone was odd at first until the letter made mentioned of not needing her anymore if he was going to study so hard.

He was rather upset for his friend. She too had rather a difficult upbringing, though through no fault of her parents, but that of other children, that in conjunction with barely seeing her at the end of the year must have affected her and her apparently low self-esteem. In Harry's reply he made sure he told her in no uncertain terms how much he needed her, she was after all one of his first ever friends too.

Ron's responses were typical, joking about letting the side down but there was an undercurrent of understanding. Perhaps he was maturing...slightly.

Hagrid's response was rather gratifying. Apparently Samson was staying with him and Fang though Fang no longer went into the forest with them as the daft dog was afraid of Kalcon. Samson had no such fears and apparently enjoyed the short breaks with Kali. Hagrid saw Kali everyday and Kalcon twice that week, telling the pair that Harry was asking after them and that all was well. While the situation with the familiars was not ideal, it seemed to be working out as well as could be hoped.

It was Ginny's response that he was most heartened by. She didn't say much about herself, he had noticed that while she was improving she was still rather shy around him, but she did say she would like to train too and that as soon as she finished the letter she was going to try and write to Bill about everything.

He had carried on with his morning exercises, completing his circuit for only the second time. His progress with press ups and sit ups had stalled but not stopped and he was on twenty-five of each. He was amazed at the difference the diet had made, while it was impossible to eat food that was especially bad for you at Hogwarts, having a relatively strict healthy eating program made the world of difference, most of his experience eating with the Dursley's was take what you can when you can, the relative quality of the food was not a factor. This diet though left him with boundless energy and he was easily maintaining the healthy appearance given to him via the bond.

He was waiting outside the house when Professor McGonagall arrived. They had decided that disturbing the Dursley's as little as possible was the best tactic.

"Mr Potter, I see you're ready to go. I have the full day free and hopefully Filius and Bathsheba can join us this evening to assess the wards on The Kiln."

"You really think we'll be able to go there today Professor?" He asked cautiously unwilling to let himself believe it just yet.

"I'm certain of it Mr Potter. We have a backup plan if the trip to the bank is unsuccessful. Now, hold onto my arm, we are going to side-along apparate. It is a rather unpleasant sensation but a most effective way to travel."

Holding tightly onto his Professor's arm he heard a pop as he felt almost like someone was trying to force him through a rather small tube. Before he had time to properly assess his situation he had arrived in Diagon Alley. It took him a moment to gather himself as his Professor looked on. "I'm not sure I like that Professor."

"No, not many do, but it does have its advantages. Now aside from Gringott's is there anywhere else you would like to go today?"

"Well, I think I need at least one new cauldron and some potion vials." The Professor raised an eyebrow. "I've err..." He faltered under her stern gaze. "I've been reading the book Professor Slughorn recommended and based on that going back and trying to make Potions again, the ones from the last two years. I'm not very far along but I've been doing one a day for the last ten days or so."

"And they worked?"

"I think so Professor, they've come out how the books say they should, and it seems a waste to throw them away and if the animagus potion is going to be sitting in a cauldron for two months I'll need another"

"Indeed. Very well a new cauldron. Anything else?"

"Well, Flourish and Blotts might be useful, I was interested in animagus books." He whispered conspiratorially.

"Very well, if that is all, let us-"

"Err Professor?"

"Yes child?" she asked, not unkindly though Harry bristled at being called a child.

"W-Would it be possible for me to get some regular clothes? I've never had anything that wasn't Dudley's but if I don't have to go back there I never want to wear his things again." He looked at her hopefully

A look of understanding and sympathy crossed her face as her heart went out to the boy in front of her who had had so little good in his life. "Of c-course Harry." Her voice emotional. "We can make our way to muggle London after the bookstore."

The pair made their way to Gringott's and a teller.

"Key?" asked the goblin forcefully, not looking up from the parchment in front of him.

"I am here to escort Mr Potter to his Family Vault. This letter from his magical guardian should suffice."

After looking up in surprised at Harry's name, the goblin perused the letter in front of him.

"Very well. Nimlock!" another Goblin scurried over to the pair "please escort Mr Potter and the Professor to his Family Vault." The Goblin bowed low then turned and marched away as the pair sped after him.

On reaching the doors to the vaults they were beckoned through and into a cart. The Professor seemed unfazed by the cart ride and even managed to talk a little about his family history before they reached the vault.

"While not of the true wizarding nobility, the Potter line is one of the oldest on record. They are also rather comfortably well off. As befitting the master craftsmen they traditionally were, they were paid handsomely for their services, sometimes in gold, sometimes through exchange of services or talents and sometimes through knowledge. While by no means extensive, from what I remember the Potter library is home to a number of rare and unusual works. Due to the occupancy spell these tomes should be in your vault."

"Occupancy spell Professor?"

"Yes when the Master or mistress of an ancestral home dies, all non-fixed valuables are automatically brought to the family vault until such time as a new rightful occupant of the home claims it."

"So everything that should be in the house will be in here? Won't it be rather crowded?"

"Gringott's has contingency plans for just such an occasion and each family vault has a number of rooms. One for money one for furniture, one for decorations such as artwork or antiques, one for weaponry et cetera."

"Weaponry?"

"Yes the Potter's amassed a rather intriguing selection I am led to understand. Now here we are." As the cart stopped Harry was surprised by the length of time taken to reach the vault. He was even more surprised when he looked at the image on the vault door. He looked at the Professor confused "A winged boar?"

The Professor smirked "Yes Mr Potter."

"Like the ones at Hogwarts?"

"Yes. It is not widely known but almost all the statues in Hogwarts are Potter creations. In honour of the quality of their work the Founders allowed the Potter emblem to adorn the gates of their institution."

At this point Nimlock interrupted, "Mr Potter if you will place your hand upon the door."

As Harry did so he felt a sharp pinprick on his thumb and after a moment the large door swung inwards.

"Mr Potter, I must inform you that due to the nature of your trust vault you are not allowed to remove any coins from this vault." the goblin warned sternly. "Your trust vault is replenished each year from the coins here."

Harry nodded in understanding and moved through to the vault. Inside he was met with a relatively small square room with three doors leading off it. He had been followed in by the Professor and Nimlock and it was again the goblin who spoke.

"Sir, there is a particular enchantment that is at work on this vault, I was unaware of it until now as I had never entered here. The goblins of Gringotts offer a service upon the establishment of a family vault whereby when any of the direct bloodline enter, the antechamber answers their most pressing need. For example, if books are stored here on a permanent basis and that knowledge is required the book would appear in here rather than forcing the vault holder to search through the vaults themselves."

"Wow, so if we needed the location of my ancestral home and the answer was in this vault it would appear in this room?" The goblin merely nodded in response.

As Harry looked around the antechamber he noticed a small pile of papers on one of the shelves. Grinning he walked over to the shelf and quickly rifled through the papers searching out the necessary details. He found them on a map of the Lake District with the coordinates of 'The Kiln' clearly marked. Turning to share the information with Professor McGonagall, he was surprised to hear the tinkle of metal on stone and he looked down to see a silver ring on the floor. Bending down to pick up the ring he saw it appeared to be a silver metal possibly platinum. The ring was large and the front portion adorned with a royal blue square inset with an intricately designed winged boar made of the same metal as the ring itself. He looked up at Professor McGonagall who nodded at his unasked question and he put the ring on his right index finger.

A light of the same royal blue surrounded the ring as it resized itself to fit him and he felt an odd warmth emanating from the ring itself.

"Err what just happened Professor?"

"The real reason we had to come here today Mr Potter. A number of ancestral homes, particularly those which have occupancy enchantments, require the rightful heir to wear the house ring before the fittings are restored to the home. Not all have them which is why I hadn't mentioned it but now that you have claimed the ring and been accepted I dare say you will find two of these rooms significantly emptier."

Harry had forgotten about the doors off the vault, and quickly looked through them. Two of the rooms were indeed empty; the third looked to have not quite ten times the amount of gold that was in his trust vault, but nothing else. Knowing that he could take nothing else from the vault the trio departed.

On the way out he asked Nimlock if they could stop at his trust vault to withdraw funds and fifteen minutes later the pair were back in the open air.

Harry had thought his trip to Gringott's suspiciously simple and harboured strong hopes that he would soon see his new home. He was to be disappointed. The hour in Gringotts was supplemented with fifteen minutes buying cauldrons, vials and mobile heat stands and half an hour in Flourish and Blotts as the Professor was asked to recommend alternative textbooks by numerous customers. That took the pair to eleven o'clock but hopes of a short trip to muggle London for clothes and lunch were dashed when he saw where they were going for clothes, the department store was huge! It was three very hungry hours later that the pair emerged, though Harry had a completely new wardrobe. The pair quickly made their way to a sandwich shop and Harry wolfed down his lunch, quite aware of the disapproving glare of his Head of House but too eager to see his new home to care. The professor must have understood his enthusiasm as she ate the sandwich with greater gusto than decorum would usually allow her to permit. Once the late lunch was finished the professor, who had shrunk and lightened all of their current purchases, took hold of their bags and Harry's arm and with a warning of apparition moved them to the designated coordinates.


	8. A New Home

When Harry stopped feeling nauseous he was surprised to find himself in a wooded area on a long, straight stone path two metres wide. The path led up to tall black gates made up of metal railings surrounded by a sandstone wall around four feet high, with metal going up a further three feet to the height of the gate. Within the gate itself was the image of a winged boar, which 'flew' back and forth across the gate, the railings melding to form the image of the boar as it moved.

Slowly Harry moved in front of the Professor and carefully walked up to the gate keeping his eye on the boar. The boar turned towards Harry and the two-dimensional boar moved into a third dimension as the metal railings of the gate melted to form the boars head. The boars head opened its mouth and eyed Harry's ring. Knowing what was required, Harry put his right hand into the mouth and waited. The warmth in the ring increased and the boars head glowed with an ethereal blue light. An odd metallic click broke the silence and before he knew it the boar was back in two dimensions and the gate was swinging open. Once the gate was open he was confronted with one of the bizarre sights he had ever seen. He was looking at the House in front of him on an angle. To the left of the near corner was a three storey elegant sandstone house with two large windows either side of a large doorway. Closer inspection showed that it was not made up of stone blocks but that the stone front was formed from one giant piece of sandstone. That wasn't the odd part, the house itself had no roof but instead was seemed to be carved into living rock. The rock sloped leisurely down to ground level and was partially covered in grass, except where three odd glass structures jutted out from the slope.

At a confused look from her student, the professor explained, "As I have told you previously your family are historically increasingly strong earth elementalists. Whether you have inherited the gift or not I am unaware, however, your transfiguration marks are promising. The strength of the gift in later generations allowed for the single solid structure you see here, in fact the rooms inside are all formed from the same single piece of stone. As for the glass, they're greenhouses, while the earth elemental gift has normally manifested as a gift with stone, occasionally, it has manifested as a gift with plants. From the reports from Professor Sprout I don't believe you have that particular gift I'm afraid. Not that her reports are unfavourable but rather plant gifted Potters have a gift more like Neville Longbottom." Harry nodded in understanding and looking with awe at the building in front of him. "Shall we?" He could only nod in response.

The stone path from the front gate wound round to the front entrance of the house about a hundred yards away. To his left not quite following the route of the path was a stream, an apparently fast flowing stream, though judging by the hills he could see in the distance that wasn't overly surprising. The stream carried on around the back of the house and seemed to lead into the trees he could see on the far right corner of the property.

As the house loomed up in front of them Harry couldn't help but look up at the beautiful visage, facing him. The house was large clearly, but not so much that he felt overwhelmed. The doorway in front of him appeared to be formed of black marble, it pulsed and opened as he stepped onto the first of the three steps leading to the entrance.

As he stepped through he saw gas lamps flare in a warm, welcoming yellow and he was confronted with a large sandstone stairway in front and to the right of him, which twisted halfway up and doubled back on itself above his head. The walls were, as Professor McGonagall suggested, formed from a single piece of sandstone, while the floor appeared to be formed of a single piece of pale blue marble.

It was another few moments before Harry could collect himself, and it took a gentle tap on the shoulder for Harry to move.

"Wow!"

"Yes I always appreciated it. Come I'll show you the sitting room first." So began the tour, though the Professor wasn't intimately familiar with the house she had a more than fair idea of the layout. The ground floor it turned out was a more formal area, with a small sitting room and rather elegantly furnished, there were no paintings anywhere but there were statues and busts built into small alcoves in the wall. The small room led into a larger though equally well appointed room, which was most notable for the black marble fire place that was the focus of one of the walls. This it turned out was where the floo network was connected. Next came the kitchens which were spacious if rather old fashioned, though Harry was all the more taken with it as a result. A small side door led to the grounds and there was a large central island covered in black marble, the pale blue flooring had given way to pristine, unblemished white and all the cupboards were formed of intricately carved sandstone.

The next room, which took up one whole side of the house, was the formal dining hall. It had enough seating for twenty comfortably around a beautiful black marble dining table which rose elegantly from the again pale blue marble floor.

The second floor had a more lived in feel and there was a more informal sitting room, as well as a study/library, large bathroom and some form of stone workshop. The final floor had five bedrooms, including the Master suite and two bathrooms shared between the other four rooms. The master suite itself had a royal blue marble floor and an apparently King size bed covered in white cotton sheets and a small elegant fire place although Harry really hoped it wasn't connected to the floo. It also had its own bathroom which appeared to be the only room in the house not to have sandstone walls. The room was made of off white marble with a black marble floor and had a beautiful separate shower and bathtub formed from the same single piece of black stone. All the fittings appeared to be untarnished silver.

They finally came to the back of the house and went through the final door. The pair's eyes were immediately assaulted by greenery and the glare of the sun as they attempted to forge their way along the path through the uppermost greenhouse.

"It appears Mr Potter, that fourteen years, is too long to leave a number of these plants unattended." She said acerbically. Harry wasn't sure why she seemed to be taking it out on him but then again she had had his plants caught in her hair.

Making their way back to the second floor and the informal sitting room the pair decided to wait for the other professors to show up, McGonagall having sent them a message.

"Mr Potter, while we wait I thought it would be prudent to discuss how the current arrangements are working? I see you have been exercising" this shocked Harry who hadn't noticed any physical results from his workouts "but what about your studies?"

Harry launched into an explanation of his timetable including an enthusiastic assessment of the magical theory texts, his Potions experiments and his Runes studies. He did also point out, as he felt it was best to be honest that he struggled through Arithmancy and History and had barely scratched the surface of Herbology.

"Mr Potter, I am unsure which particular wards will be used to augment the existing ones here but in the interests of security it would not surprise me if one of them is the Fidelius Charm. The charm itself is rather obscure and I only know of it due to the warding precautions people were forced to take during the last war. It involves the entrusting of a secret to a living person and it is hidden to everyone else, anyone not let in on the secret will never be able to discover it until the person dies. This secret could be anything in theory but the most practical use is the hiding of a home. Anyone living in the home will be unable to be found by anyone not in on the secret."

Harry nodded along with explanation.

"Due to the nature of the magic involved, anyone living in such a house cannot hold the secret, as the magic is built on trust that the secret will be safe. Trusting yourself to keep your own secret is not strong enough. If you have someone who you think could be your secret keeper it would be prudent to have them right the secret on some parchment you could then show to others you want to be let in on the secret.

"If, and it is still an if, this charm is performed, you may well be able to solve your problems with both History and Herbology. Since the first war Madam Longbottom, Neville's grandmother is rather paranoid about safety, she is also extremely well versed in magical history and Mr Longbottom, as you know, is somewhat of a Herbology prodigy and would no doubt be delighted to help you with your greenhouses."

The thought of seeing someone his own age again, pleased Harry even more, admittedly he didn't know Neville that well but both of them were rather shy, it was kind of inevitable it would take time.

It was at that moment his thoughts were interrupted by a gong reverberating through the house and the announcement that the professors had arrived, Harry wasn't entirely sure who, or indeed what had made such an announcement.

They met the pair at the door at Harry brought them back up to the informal sitting room. The new arrivals looked around appreciatively.

"Well Mr Potter, it appears thing are looking up for you." Said Flitwick excitedly.

"It looks that way sir" answered Harry with a grin.

"We had a brief look at the wards and they are relatively sound" Professor Babbling stated "It would help if we could see the primary ward stone and from there we should be able to see to any potential upgrades." The professor looked at him questioningly while Harry was just confused.

"Err primary ward stone? I don't know if we have one, or where it is, I've only been here about an hour." Harry responded nervously, it would be ridiculous if this was scuppered now.

An oddly earthy cough from behind the seated quartet startled them and Harry looked round and was surprised to see no one.

"I believe I can help." A rich baritone voice interrupted. One of the alcove statues was talking. "Edward Potter at your service. I believe young master that you are an heir." It amazed Harry that he was still surprised by things in the magical world but to his credit it no longer took him as long to recover.

"I err...guess I am sir. Harry Potter."

"Well young Harry why have you not been here before, it has been years since a Potter has lived here?"

The Professors made a tactful withdrawal with Professor McGonagall saying she would show the others around the home and would meet the pair later.

An hour later and Harry had related his tale, albeit in a rather reduced format. It was rather odd to see the look of pride on the statue. The pair were rejoined by the professors just as Edward was relating his story. It appeared that by two hundred and eighty years ago both the magical and elemental powers of the Potter line had increased significantly. Allied to their legendary intuitive control it made them rather revered and Edward had taken it upon himself to build himself a new home. Due to his particular skill and power, he was able to call forth and meld various types of stone together, hence the seamless transition from sandstone walls to marble flooring and the various different marble floorings. In the end he was so proud of his creation that similar to magical paintings, he left an imprint of his personality not so much within the statue but on the house as a whole, as such the statue could move anywhere throughout the house, flowing along and through walls. It was a rather disturbing, though impressive, sight.

Explanations complete, thoughts returned to the wardstone and Edward explained the route to the warding chamber. The group followed Edward to the foot of the staircase where, at his direction, Harry cut his palm and pressed it against a specific point on the wall. The stairs shifted in front of them sliding together to become horizontal, before continuing down into a new chamber. Inside the chamber the group were presented with a 6-foot by 4-foot by 4-foot piece of obsidian which left the three Professors gobsmacked.

Harry was informed by Edward that different stones were suited to different tasks in warding, diamond or obsidian for basic power, rubies for offensive wards, sapphires for more passive wards etc, a network of various gemstones were fitted around the property boundaries and all keyed back to the obsidian primary wardstone which took magic from the building which in turn took in ambient magic from the environment. It turned out this was a standard set up but what amazed the professors was the size of the primary stone. Somewhat sheepishly Edward admitted that he had no clue about the Runes required to properly set up wardstones but he was able to use his elemental skills to call forth what was effectively a hugely overpowered obsidian battery and use raw power instead of rune finesse. It turned out no subsequent Potter had seen fit to rectify this situation and introduce the necessary Rune systems to the primary and secondary stones. As only a Potter could touch the primary stone it left Edward rather embarrassed by the oversight given his heirs current predicament.

"Well Edward, myself and your heir will have to make a project of it during his time at Hogwarts won't we?" the runes professor stated matter-of factly barely taking her eyes off the stone. The expression on Harry's face fluctruated between a smile and a grimace. The statement did shake everyone out of their stupor though and soon the assessments were complete. In terms of powering the wards, there was very little to be done at the moment in terms of adding to their capabilities, until the runes could be added to the necessary stones. All that there was to do was for Harry to place his still wounded hand on the wardstone so that he himself would take over the wards from Edward who had been keeping them going to the best of his abilities. As he did so a surge of power flowed through him and the building seemed to hum and lights flared before it settled. Even then the lights seemed somewhat brighter than before. Given the new status of the wards Professor's Flitwick and Babbling went off to reinspect them while Harry took it upon himself to call Dobby and ask him to prepare dinner for the group, who he had invited to share a meal.

The meal was ready when the pair returned. The runes professor particularly excited believing that if they could do the rune work properly the sheer raw power of the wards would make them among the finest in Britain. It was decided that Professor Flitwick would cast the Fidelius charm powering it from the wardstone with Edward's help. Professor McGonagall struggled to hide her emotion as she was asked to be the secret keeper.

Two hours later the job was done and the Professors took their leave. Dobby had retrieved all Harry's possessions from Privet Drive and he was ready to start a new chapter in his life. It didn't take long after lying down to drift off in a sleep of complete contentment.


	9. Friends and the End of a Glorious Summer

The following days were rather fast paced even for Harry and his new schedule he had taken to running laps around the house as a substitute for the park, and it was working adequately. The animagus potion was brewing and he had Dobby to remind him when anything needed to be done to it over the next two months. The two months gave him just enough time to finish the potion, the timing meaning it would be ready two days before school started.

He was especially enjoying the time with Neville, every other day from Monday to Friday Neville had come round and they had started to work in the greenhouses. Though ecstatic to be invited, Neville was still rather shy, and it took until the Friday for him to really open up, but they were getting along surprisingly well, and Neville was of course in his element when it came to the greenhouses.

He had been here a week and had heard from Hagrid, Ginny and Ron, all were doing well, as were Kali and Samson, which Ginny was only too happy to hear. She was rather frustrated to be getting the information second hand but was making the best of it. She also confirmed that she had indeed written to Bill and was nervously awaiting his response. Both her and Ron did have some very good news though, that they were going to Egypt to visit Bill since the Weasleys had won a thousand galleons. Harry couldn't be happier. The Weasleys deserved a holiday and being closer to Bill could only help Ginny.

He had taken the day off, Edward had advised him too, said it did him no good to sit inside most of the day he hadn't properly explored yet and at Harry's suggestion he look at the library it was forcefully suggested that he wander the grounds. By this point Harry had explained his history in greater detail and though fiercely proud of his multi-great grandson he had repeatedly stated that while the desire to learn seemed prudent given the circumstances, it does no good to study to the detriment of all else. It reminded Harry of the look he got from Kalcon and Professor McGonagall when he suggested concentrating solely on defence. If that wasn't enough Edward then suggested that if he liked to fly as much as it seemed why hadn't he used the broomstick here yet. Harry relented immediately as the thought of flying took hold.

He was in the air for two hours before he thought about food and after lunch he wandered out to the forest at the back corner of the property. He had always loved trees. It might have had something to do with the cupboard but the idea of the great outdoors was wonderful. Of course the incident with Aragog was in a forest but then that was where he met Kali so it was a case swings and roundabouts really. He was following the route of the stream thinking of Kali and Samson. He really would have to write to Hagrid when he got back. He was shaken from his thoughts when the trees opened up into a clearing and a small lake along with a sight that froze his almost teenage mind.

On the opposite side of the lake were three girls. That really wasn't the problem, years of not being physically allowed to talk to anyone meant that the idea of talking to girls was not an unpleasant one. The problem was what they were wearing, or the lack of it. Harry knew what a naked female was supposed to look like, he went to a boarding school, within hours he and his dorm mates had been introduced to the trade in illicit magazines, not that Harry had ever partaken, but you can't help but see things. He just had never seen so much in real life. Sure the girls were wearing bikini's and objectively speaking they weren't that old and there wasn't an awful lot to cover, but to Harry's hormonally driven mind that didn't really register.

It was at that moment that Harry chose to embarrass himself. Too stunned by the sight to take in his surroundings he tripped over an exposed tree root. The noise caused the girls to look up, not that Harry saw them, engaged as he was in an undignified scramble on the downhill slope of the bank to the lake. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to stay upright and ended up covered in mud from head to toe, his jeans weren't too bad and they were quite dark but his white polo shirt had seen better days. Harry was mortified but at least the blood rushing too his face put a quick stop to what could have been an even greater disaster. His relief for that intensified when he stood up and looked again at the girls who were walking over to him, wrapped in towels now, but most definitely smirking.

"Quite the entrance Potter." He groaned, he was surrounded by magical homes so it was inevitable people would recognise him. He looked more closely at the girls.

Oh this was bad. He knew them too.

"So Potter what brings you to our lowly retreat?"

"Nothing Davis. I live here now. I was taking a walk and ended up here. Not entirely sure when I left the wards."

She nodded but continued to take him in with a calculating expression. "You might want to clean yourself off in the lake. And cool yourself down. I gather from your entrance you liked what you saw." She smirked as his cheeks darkened. One of the other girls chuckled while the other looked scandalised.

It was made even worse when a fourth bikini clad girl made her way to the clearing, one that Harry knew better than the others.

"Oi Daphne, Tracey, Susan! Where have you...Oh Harry what are you doing here?"

"Hi Katie" he replied, forcing himself to look her in the eye.

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" she moaned as she wrapped a towel round herself. "Now Harry how come your here?"

"I moved in last week. Only just found out I had an ancestral home. Moved in to get away from my aunt and uncle."

Katie nodded, there were rumours in the common room about the place Harry lived. The Weasley twins were not complimentary about Harry's relatives. The other three girls looked confused though.

"How could you not know about the home?" asked Tracey Davis bluntly. Though the question was almost drowned out by Susan Bones'.

"Why would you want to leave your relatives?"

"My-err relatives...well...they weren't nice people." He responded in a manner which clearly suggested no more was forthcoming. "As for the home, no one ever saw fit to tell me until McGonagall found out a bit about my home life. So she told me about this place. Got it properly warded again last week and moved in." He was embarrassed about sharing this much information with the girls, three of which he barely knew and the one he did know he barely spoke to outside of Quidditch. Still anything to take their mind off his entrance.

"You still need to get cleaned up Potter!" Trace smirked "Katie! You missed Harry's introduction! He was on the opposite bank ogling us all so much he fell over."

"I was not ogling!" Harry cried indignantly, though he quailed under the gaze of Tracey and Daphne and the blush returned to his cheeks with a vengeance.

"You know, I wonder what Malfoy would say if he knew about this episode." Daphne was smirking at him this time. The blush disappeared as Harry paled. The rest of the girls laughed before Katie started.

"Oh Harry don't worry, it's not Malfoy you should worry about. It's the other Quidditch girls and maybe the twins."

Panicking now Harry stammered "O-Okay I'm sorry I was just really shocked and you all looked so beautiful and I didn't expect to see anyone and I'm really, really sorry. I'll do anything just please don't tell." He was so engrossed in his babbling response he failed to notice the colour changes in the girls opposite him.

Tracey recovered quickly, "Hmm, anything?" Harry nodded earnestly as he was finally washing his face. "Fine it's always annoyed me about first year, we were winning the cup and then you and your lot got all those points. Why?"

Harry was taken aback. "B-But Dumbledore said everyone knew?"

Seeing their confused looks he resigned himself to explaining a significant portion of his life. "Well okay I'll tell but it'll take quite a while do you mind if we sit down?" As they moved back to where they had been bathing Harry had a sudden thought "Dobby?" The elf popped up in front of him.

"Yes Harry Potter sir?" the elf beamed, bouncing on his toes

"Would you mind getting me a fresh shirt? This one kind of needs a wash. Oh and could you get me a pumpkin juice. Ladies would you like anything?" After requests for pumpkin juices all round the group settled down.

"Right where to start, you remember the opening feast two years ago, that bit about the third floor corridor."

"The one with the Cerberus behind it?" piped Tracey, at Harry's startled expression she shrugged. "What everyone in Slytherin knew. The door could be opened with the simplest possible locking spell. It was almost like they were begging people to try." Harry frowned but continued.

"Yeah that one. We, that is Ron, Hermione and I figured out it was guarding the Philosopher's Stone." judging by the gasps from the group they weren't as ignorant as he had been. "Exactly, anyway we worked out someone was trying to steal it and we knew when so when they went or it we tried to stop them. Neville tried to stop us because last time we got Gryffindor in trouble. That was his points." He looked around the group and they nodded.

"We headed to the corridor and the door was open and the Cerberus was asleep." We went through the trap door it was guarding and landed on Devil's Snare." The girl's paled. "but got by easy enough with a fire spell. The next room had a load of flying keys and broomsticks and we needed to get the right one to open the door. Then a giant transfigured chess set we had to play across, that's where Ron got knocked out when he sacrificed himself. Then an already dead troll, then a logic puzzle to get through to the next bit. There was only enough potion left for one person when Hermione worked out the puzzle, so she drank the one to go back and get help and I went on to face Professor Quirrell."

At that the rest were confused. "Wait Quirrell? Stuttering, bumbling idiot?" Tracey exclaimed

"That's the one. Anyway turned out he was sharing his body with the spirit of Voldemort." Harry stated.

"Your fucking kidding me!" shouted Daphne, surprising Harry as she hadn't said much so far. "You-know-who? As in the actual you-know-who was teaching us defence for a year and he was still that shit!"

"Whoa language there Daph!" Tracey laughed. "Not exactly the point I would focus on. Harry you are kidding right?"

"No." His tone brooking no argument.

"Wow." Said the girls in unison. "So what happened?" asked Susan nervously.

"Well, it turns out my mum sacrificed herself for me." He replied emotionally "and that sacrifice protected me from her murderer. So because I've got her blood in me her murderer can't touch me without being burned. Voldemort couldn't stand the pain when I realised that I grabbed him so he left Quirrell which killed the Professor. The whole thing gave me magical exhaustion which is why I was in hospital for days after."

The girls were stunned. They had all heard little bits and pieces of the story but not all of it, and they were stunned by the boy, if you could call him that, in front of them. He hadn't bragged about anything, he clearly hadn't embellished, he was just matter-of-fact about the whole thing. One thing bothered Daphne though and she wasn't quite sure what it was.

It was at that point Dobby arrived with the drinks and the change of clothes. Harry didn't notice the glances he got from the girls as he changed, particularly the surprised one from Katie.

As they settled back own Susan tentatively asked another question "So what happened this year I mean we know you saved Ginny Weasley but what happened?"

Harry sighed "I take it you all want to ask questions then as payment for silence then?" Susan and Katie nodded. But Daphne looked thoughtful.

"Not sure yet Potter, I'll see what you say to the others."

Harry sighed again and settled in. "Okay but do you mind if I ask questions too?"

"When we've finished maybe, and the price of that will probably be more questions." Smirked Tracey.

Sighing again Harry started "It's not quite as complicated. There was a diary enchanted with the memory of the last Heir of Slytherin and designed to open the Chamber of Secrets in order to 'cleanse' the school of muggleborns. So someone was possessed and forced to open the chamber and set a basilisk loose in the school."

The girls stared at him shaking, not quite believing what had gone on.

"Dumbledore reckons we were lucky with all the students only being petrified, I think the person was fighting for control of their mind and forced the basilisk to petrify not kill.

"Anyway, the memory in the diary was getting more and more powerful and eventually took Ginny down to the Chamber. Me and Ron went after her. Being a parselmouth I was the only one who could open it. We collared Lockhart and we forced him to go as well, he overpowered Ron and tried to Obliviate us but he was using Ron's broken wand and it backfired. He's a complete loon now. Turns out he found who did all that stuff in his books then Obliviated them all and took credit for it." Harry had been staring out over the lake during all of this so didn't see their looks of disgust.

"When the spell backfired the roof collapsed cutting the other two off and leaving me to go on alone. The memory from the diary was starting to take corporeal form by using Ginny's power but spells wouldn't harm it, he then called the Basilisk and ordered it to kill me. Then Fawkes came and blinded it so I could open my eyes but it was still after me. Fawkes had brought the Sorting Hat for some reason so I put it on and was then almost knocked out when the Sword of Gryffindor dropped on my head. I grabbed it, the basilisk went to bite me and I stabbed it through the roof of the mouth. I got pierced by a fang but Fawkes's tears healed me. Then I saw the diary and stabbed it through with the basilisk fang. The memory died. Ginny woke up."

The group sat in silence for a moment before Daphne spoke up. "Okay I don't buy it, who was this Heir of Slytherin?"

"Voldemort, when he was still in school." Daphne looked slightly appeased by this but still not happy

"And you killed a Basilisk that had been sitting in Slytherin's hidden chamber's? The thing must be enormous."

"I can take you down and show you the corpse if you want" he responded coolly.

She looked chagrined but defiant. The other girls, noticing the animosity between the pair decided something needed to be done.

"So Harry, my question, are you taller than a few weeks ago and why were you still working so hard after the exams?"

"That's two questions Katie."

"Yes but the other two's questions took up whole years." She smiled sweetly and laughed when he coloured.

"Fine, but this isn't common knowledge, not even Ron and Hermione know yet. Though I probably won't be able to hide it next year. I went for a walk just after the Chamber thing. I was over by the forbidden forest when from inside it I heard a screech. I ran towards it and found acromantula surrounding a baby griffin. I helped fight them off and formed a familiar bond with her. She's responsible for the growth spurt as she corrected all the problems caused by the Dursley's starving me." He winced at the girl's sharp intake of breath. He hadn't meant to say quite so much

"S-starving you?" asked Susan, her voice barely above a whisper.

"As I said my relatives weren't nice people" he answered hoping they didn't push further.

"Well I'd be sceptical about the familiar bond but I'd be embarrassed next year wouldn't I Potter?"

"That you would Greengrass yes." He smiled. The girls slumped pleased some of the tension had lifted.

"Anyway my new Griffin family weren't exactly pleased with my cop out choice of Divination so I changed electives, and suggested that since I had a habit of getting myself into dangerous situations I should be doing more to learn enough to get me out of them. So for the rest of the year I was reviewing what I'd learnt in every subject and over summer I'm learning as much as I can and completely relearning Potions and stuff. That's why I've been here a week and this is the first time I've been here."

"Why do you have to completely relearn Potions?" asked Tracey

Harry scoffed "Come on Davis, You've seen what Snape's like to me in class I don't learn anything, so I'm going through them all again and learning some new ones."

"Like what"

"The animag...nothing important" Harry tried to cover himself quickly.

Daphne smirked "What was that Potter? That sounded like your making the Animagus revealing potion."

"Fine, yes I am. It takes two months to brew and it's been on for a week."

"Where did you find it?" asked Tracey, it was common knowledge that the potion recipe could not be found anywhere in Hogwarts, the risk of Student accidents was too high."

"McGonagall" he said quietly

The Slytherin girls looked at him in disbelief. "You got a teacher to tell you!" the practically yelled. At Harry's sheepish look they examined him thoughtfully.

"You know Potter, that might just be the most impressive thing you've done."

"Thanks Greengrass."

"Tell you what, the price for my silence is a vial of that potion for each of us and access to any of the material you have about the transformation."

Harry thought for a moment before reaching out his hand. "Deal Greengrass" As she shook his hand she and the other girls broke out into massive grins.

"Well Potter, are you wanting to question us now?"

"Sure. How long have you all been here? Is there anyone else from school around? And how come everyone's such good friends? I mean a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff fine, Huflepuff's and Slytherin's okay but all three? I don't have a problem or anything I mean neither of you are Malfoy but still."

"Right" Tracey answered, "I might as well answer. We've all been here as long as we can remember. There's nine families which back on to this forest and its shared property, which is why you didn't feel yourself leaving your wards, you haven't." Harry was confused about what this meant for the Fidelius but let Tracey continue. As we grew up together, especially as we're so close in age, we're all rather close. As for who else is around, we're largely all in the same year, except Katie here. Wayne Hopkins and Anthony Goldstein are the two missing, meaning you have girls all to yourself."

Harry blushed again and the girls smiled. This was rather easy.

"As for the house thing, it really isn't that big a deal, it depends on who you hang around with. Your friend Weasley is well known for his blanket hatred of Slytherin's just like Malfoy is known for the opposite. The Quidditch lot don't really help either. Sorry Katie." She looked at the girl apologetically. Katie just shrugged.

"Look Slytherin doesn't mean dark it means cunning and ambitious. Gryffindor doesn't mean light it means brave. You can bravely do evil things and you can be ambitious and cunning in your plans for bettering the world. The problem is bigots on both sides. We've all been friends forever so we know its bollocks."

Harry took a moment. Everything she said made perfect sense. "Huh. Maybe I shouldn't have argued so hard against Slytherin then" he said, almost to himself.

The four girls looked at him in shock. "The hat wanted YOU in Slytherin. You're like the textbook Gryffindor!" Daphne shrieked. It was Harry's turn to shrug.

"That hat said I suited any of the houses but 'Slytherin could make me great'."

"Any of the houses?" asked Susan in disbelief, that hat had suggested Gryffindor or Hufflepuff for her.

"Yep. It said plenty of courage, not a bad mind, and a willingness to work hard with a desire to prove myself as something other than the 'Boy-Who-Lived'. I would fit anywhere. But then I begged not to be in Slytherin."

"Why?" asked Daphne, genuinely interested.

"I'd already met Malfoy. I don't get how he's in Slytherin. He doesn't seem ambitious I mean he rides daddy's coat tails, and his continued attempts to get the better of me have shown no cunning whatsoever!"

"You're preaching to the converted in us Potter" replied Tracey pointing to herself and Daphne.

Daphne took over "I don't know what other houses are like but Slytherin is all about house politics." Harry saw the other girls nod and was confused when Katie agreed and looked at her questioningly.

"Harry you don't see it because you're a special case but there are little spats and politics games all the time in the house. Not to the extent of Slytherin I would imagine but they are still there. There's a git in my year Cormac McLaggen. Absolutely loaded, father's friends with those in high places, spent half of my first year mouthing off about who his daddy knows."

"What happened?"

"Weasley twins" she said with a feral grin, one which Harry returned. "Having them there brings everyone down off the perch a bit. You never noticed it because you're kind of above it all anyway being as famous as you are." Harry scowled but she continued regardless "Don't argue it's true, anyway you seem to have more important things to worry about. Besides even if you weren't you you're in with the Quidditch lot anyway. That counts for a lot. In Gryffindor anyway." The other's nodded.

"Hufflepuff is similar this year there was one first year that was a bit like that, but he got taken aside and warned that isn't the Hufflepuff way" added Susan.

"Well Slytherin is all about the politics and everything is a game of one-upmanship. The house is probably only about thirty or forty percent pureblood supremacist but you wouldn't know it. Malfoy is probably the main reason, not so much Draco as his father. He's rich, powerful and he gave power to his vassal houses, even when his son wasn't there."

"Vassal houses?"

"Geez you really don't know a thing about our world do you Harry. Right, all of us here are from old middle-class wizarding families. Independent of anyone else, we went about our business happily doing our own thing. Then there is the upper classes who are all titled, Lords, ladies Counts, Barons, Earl's we have all kinds. They were either historically battle mages like the Black's or Longbottom's or they married into magic like the Malfoy's. Most of those have vassal houses i.e. families they have sworn to protect using their power as long as the family provides a service."

"So the Malfoy's have a few of these?"

"The Flint's, Pucey's, Crabbe's, Goyle's and Warrington's are the ones to worry about at the moment but there are more."

"So because Malfoy has so much power, these families run Slytherin even though most people there don't want him to?"

"To be honest, most in Slytherin just want to let others get on with their own life and do their own thing, the only ones actively pushing a real political agenda are the Malfoy faction."

"So ultimately Draco Malfoy ends up with a false sense of his own importance because no one in the house is powerful enough to stand up to his father, or interested enough to knock him off his perch?"

"That about sums it up. He may well be incredibly cunning and ambitious but he doesn't need it to run the house. There's actually a good chance he would run the school if not for you." Harry looked startled again. "What you stand up to him and beat him every time but you're not interested in politics which allows the school to run relatively smoothly, but keeps Draco trying to take over."

"Wow. I guess I really have been locked in my own little world"

"Yeah you have, I mean the pair of us" Tracey pointed to herself and Daphne "are well known for being bitchy sarcastic and unpleasant to people when we want but even we have more than two good friends."

Harry frowned. It was a fair point he really didn't know Gryffindor people that well, let alone any of the other houses. Maybe it was time to change more than just his work attitude.

"Huh, so what is it you all do over the holidays can I expect to see more of you here?" he was confused by Tracey's snort and Daphne's arched eyebrow until he replayed the statement in his head.

"Damn it I didn't mean that."

"Oh we know Harry it's just so easy" Susan responded. We're around most days, usually we swim but we kind of got distracted today. You're welcome to join us if you like."

Harry blushed and hung his head "What's the matter Harry? Don't you like us in our costumes?"Tracey teased

"Ineverlearnedtoswim" he said in a rushed whisper

"What was that?"

"I never learned to swim. They wouldn't teach me." All four girls scowled.

"Well we'll teach you. At least one or two of us are here every day, sometimes some other girls join us generally Hannah Abbott or the Gryffindor Quidditch girls. Daphne's sister has been a few times but she's a bit young. The boy's are away for most of this summer, so no one else need know." Said Susan earnestly.

"I'm not sure when I can I'm studying quite a lot."

"Don't be an idiot Potter. It's the summer, you need to relax, besides don't you know how rare it is to be offered the chance to hang around with wet half naked witches all day?" Tracey laughed as the other girls shrieked at her. Secretly Harry thought she had a rather good point. They made plans to meet between twelve and one every day to teach Harry to swim and the lessons quickly became the high point of each and every day.

Each of the girl's had their quirks. Tracey was hilarious and he spent most of his time with her thankful the water was cold so he could contain his blush. Daphne was sharp and witty with an acerbic tongue and a surprisingly foul mouth. After the less than stellar start he found himself really appreciating her. Where Tracey would knock him down with innuendo, Daphne barely needed to raise an eyebrow, she reminded him of McGonagall in the way a single glance spoke volumes. Susan on the other hand mothered him, tried to help him relax and not rise to Tracey's bait all the time. She could laugh and be laughed at too as she was quite clumsy she put it down to struggling with the weight of her developing chest which caused the rest of the girls to laugh uproariously when the saw Harry's face and Susan to blush profusely when she realised he had heard. Katie was the tomboy of the group and sometimes instead of swimming the pair spent the time climbing a tree and she told stories of her two older brothers.

It was during one of his chats with Katie that he first found out about Sirius Black, the escaped lieutenant of Voldemort. He was definitely glad he had got his act together and started studying.

The lesson's with Neville were still going on and Harry was gradually bringing the boy out of his shell. He enjoyed the quiet time in the greenhouse and could see why some of his ancestor's had developed such a love of the subject, not that he could spend all day doing it like Neville seemed to want to, but he would certainly be taking a more active role in his lessons this year.

With the Weasley's away, his only regular correspondent was Hagrid who heard from once or twice a week. Kali was apparently rather restless and seemed desperate to see him. Samson too seemed to be pining for Ginny. In the letter he received for his birthday it appeared that Ginny too was pining for Samson. Harry knew the feeling.

Before he knew it, it was the end of august and the greatest time of his life. His more relaxed approach towards the end of summer meant that while he had finished all the books he personally had bought or borrowed, he hadn't even scratched the surface of his library. Harry toyed with the idea of coming home for Christmas, just for the library. No maybe not, while Hermione would be proud, he still had standards.

The best bit of the end of august was the Animagus potion, he ladled it into vials and had just closed them all when he realised his predicament. He had enough for six. Himself, he had promised Tracey, Daphne, Katie and Susan but then there was one more. In the back of his mind he had thought that Ron, Hermione and Ginny would appreciate it as well, but that plan was scuppered. While Hermione would appreciate it he wasn't sure she wouldn't try to make them wait until they could be taught personally. While Harry hoped McGonagall would help a bit he planned on being rather self reliant, so she was probably out. Ron would think it was cool but he just didn't have the dedication required yet, if he ever would. Ginny though, from his letters he knew she still wanted him to teach her, and from the end of last year he knew she was dedicated. He would give the vial to her.

He made his way to the clearing and was confronted by the four girls, each clearly excited. They knew today was the day the potion was set to finish. Tracey all but leapt at Harry as soon as he appeared.

"Is it done? Is it done? Is it do-" She stopped and let out an excited squeal as he held up the vial. He had also brought the book with him which indicated how the Potion should look after Daphne pointed out that regardless of whether it was Snape's fault she had seen him in Potion's class and wanted some confirmation that she wasn't about to die.

When she and the other girls were satisfied they looked at each other and Harry and in one fluid motion all five of them gulped down the contents.

Harry awoke to find himself on a steep slope in a heavily wooded area, making his way across the slope he found himself closing in on the mouth of a cave. Inside the cave was dark except for two emerald points of light which followed him. He halted and the eyes moved towards him instead and he was held by the gaze of an extremely strong and agile looking cat. It looked mostly like a tiger, but it was grey rather than orange or white like most tiger's and it's ears, were looked like that of a lynx. The odd feline started jogging towards him, then running and he noticed an odd hair colouration on its forehead. It was shaped like a lightning bolt. Guess there was no getting away from it. Though the cat was running it didn't seem aggressive towards him and he used the time to study it. Without warning, the creatures head changed from that of the odd grey tiger, to an eagle though everything else remained the same. Or at least he thought it did but as the creature built up speed and got closer he was surprised to see it spread wings and lift off. As it took off, the tiger paws, both front and back narrowly missed his forehead. Looking up at the creature, he watched its graceful manoeuvring for some minutes before it came into land at speed, it landed it slowed to a jog then a trot before finally coming to a halt in front of him and reverted to the purely feline form. He reached out to the creature to stroke its soft looking fur and in turn the creature lowered its head towards his hand. The moment the two met he was briefly filled with warmth similar to that of both the familiar bond and the first time he wore the ring. But before he could analyse it any further he was thrown from the vision and found himself lying on the floor in the clearing.

He looked around and noticed that the girls too were just waking and each was looking rather happy. Even Daphne.

While he was confused he thought he should start the inevitable questioning. "So what form does everyone have?"

"A hare" replied Susan rather pleased, she had spent her time speeding through fields and warrens, though there was a scary moment when she thought she had seen a wolf.

"A Lemur" answered Tracey, clearly ecstatic with her form, the playful mischievous creature certainly suited her. Harry idly wondered what the Weasley twins might be.

Turning to Katie she responded "Kingfisher" it rather suited her too. She was certainly a good flyer.

"Raven" said Daphne rather smug. With her dark hair and eyes she certainly had the look and from their discussions he knew she had the intelligence.

"So I guess everyone's pleased then?"

"What what about you? What's your form?" Tracey enquired.

"Not a clue"

"Didn't see anything?"

"No saw something but don't know what it was. It was a large cat. Like a tiger but mainly grey with pointy ears like a lynx. Seemed kind of cool then next thing I know, it has the head and wings of an eagle, but not the feet like a Griffin. Never seen it before and never heard of anything like it." The girls hadn't either and when they all left the clearing they were still pondering the riddle of Harry's form.

* * *

This is about as far as I had got to when I first published the story, the problem I have now is I don't know where to go with it. I have a couple of things I would quite like to see, and to those of you really interested Harry with anyone other than Ginny is not one of them in this story. Honestly if anyone has any ideas or even wants to take it over after the start they are welcome to give it ago as long as they let me know.

As I've said before I am not a writer but I have had this in my head for quite a while and needed to get it out and see if anyone else had any ideas of what to do with it.

As to Harry's form the bonding with the Griffin has had a significant role in determining Harry's form. As the bonding of a Cerberus will for Ginny. Harry doesn't know it yet but he is an Opinicus. Similar to a griffin but not quite as big and the front feet are paws rather than talons, they also have ears like a lynx. As to the tiger being grey, google Maltese Tiger and just see how awesome they look.


End file.
